This Reflection of Me
by Harold Saxon
Summary: The Master's bloody past is catching up with him when he, the 10th Doctor and Donna are following the trail of the recently resurrected Rassilon on a planet called Saltsea. Will their friendship survive this ordeal or will they finally part as enemies? COMPLETED
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note:**

_This Reflection of Me belongs to a set of stories called: A Timelord and his madman, from which the first installment was posted in January 2010, directly after the final episode of the 10__th__ Doctor. It is a sort of alternative season 5, in which the 10__th__Doctor has fortunately survived the events of "The End of time". Wandering alone in search of the Master, he finally succeeded to save the Master from the Timelock in the first story of the series called "His Silent Mind". Other installments include (In the right order): "Judoon Justice", "A Murderous Feast", "Shattered Worlds", "Before Harry met Lucy", and "The Most Happy Bride". If you're interested in the rest of the series and don't want to miss out on the Doctor's and the Master's previous adventures, hit the author button and find the links on my author page._

_In this story, both Timelords are traveling together as equal companions, and they have picked up Donna on their way as they are following the trail of the newly resurrected Rassilon. He has merged his essence with the Tudor queen Anne Boleyn and is currently using her as a corporal vessel to travel through time. This story begins with a flashback to the Great Time War when the Timelords were locked in a deadly battle with the Dalek empire. On a far away planet in a distant galaxy, one of the Timelord generals had been sent out to lay siege to the castle Dagonmourn... _

**This Reflection of Me **

**Chapter 1**

1.

_The Past._

The wild landscape of the moors that lay before him was shrouded in a thick blanket of mist. It concealed the rolling fields and purple heath for as far as the eyes could see. Ser Blackbeak stood on the battlements. Clad in heavy armor, his cape flapped behind him in the cold wind. The old general could hardly see the large legion that surrounded the castle walls below. Even their colorful banners, depicting a strange pagan symbol of merging circles on a bright red shield, were barely visible to him. Still, he knew the size of the army that was waiting for him at the gates and was fully aware of its might. Even with his men outnumbering them 2 to 1, he had already lost this battle.

_These monsters don't fight like men of the Salted Earth. _Ser Blackbeak contemplated grimly. He should know. He had been fighting wars for half of his life, defending castle Dagonmourn by the side of his sworn lord, but never had he encountered such ruthless enemies.

His adversaries came from the south, like so many who sought the secret of the Dagontomb had before, but unlike the primitive tribes that came to this land, lured by the promise of great power, these men were trained warriors, riding on fearsome beasts that looked like the Salt God's worst nightmare turned flesh. Their mounts were reptilian-like creatures, with white scales covering their entire body from their claws to the very tip of their sweeping tail, with a large head that opened like a flower into a maul with dagger-teeth. Many of his bravest men had been torn apart by these devils, but even these fearsome monsters were not less fearful then the riders themselves. Clad in full black armor, they wielded devilish swords that emitted a strange demonic glow as if the steel o had just been forged out of the fires. They sliced through a knight's breastplate like it would through soft liver, and his enemies had used them mercilessly, cutting down ser Blackbeak's men like weed in bloody battle.

Even Ser Blackbeak himself was captured. The memory of his humiliating defeat still stung his ill-healing wound. A knight in black had come riding from behind him and cut him down from the saddle. Bloody and raw, he was picked up from the muddy battle field by his enemies to be presented to their lord and master.

"There is no honor in death." The lord of the dark riders stared calmly down at him. He was a tall youth with a head of black curls framing a gaunt face, and startling blue eyes that looked right into your soul. He smiled at him with a smile that did not reach his eyes.

"All this bloodshed, this waste of precious lives, and to what purpose? To protect a meaningless pile of rocks, a tomb constructed for an absent God. Now tell me, and just be honest. You don't really think it's worth all this, do you?"

"It's…It's our duty." Ser Blackbeak answered, glaring up at the frightful two-headed monster that was his adversary's riding animal. One of the heads split open like a large carnivorous flower just inches from his face, drooling acids. Where the drops of saliva hit the ground, the vegetation hissed and shriveled away.

"Duty." The Dark lord repeated, as if he was contemplating the meaning of the word. "Duty is a moral shackle, conceived by the very lords who wish for nothing but for us to serve them, unreservedly and mindlessly. It's invented to put a man's soul in irons, and is as equally cruel as clipping the wings from an eagle or pulling out the claws from a mountain tiger. Duty, good ser, is a monstrous and most unnatural thing, and no rational man should use it as a stupid excuse to _not _choose for his own life." He paused. His eyes never seemed to blink. The smile he gave him was cold and calculative.

"You seem like a rational man Ser Blackbeak. Let me offer you a way out. Persuade your lord to open the gates for me. Spare me a boring, tedious siege in exchange for safe passage for the women and children, the weak and the old. I will let you lead them away from here unharmed."

There was hesitation on Ser Blackbeak's face. "And what about my lord and his men?"

"None of their blood shall be spilled." The smile broadened into a boyish grin. "I swear on my high honor."

Ser Blackbeak had little choice. If the Saltmen continued this futile war they would eventually be defeated. Not only had they already lost half of their troops, the roads to the south had been cut off by the invaders, starving the castle's inhabitants from food and water. If there was to be a siege they wouldn't even last till the next full moon.

So he made a reluctant pledge to his enemy. The Dark lord then released him to return home and bring the grave news to his master, the lord of Dagonmourn.

Meagon Dagonmourn had been Ser Blackbeak's true and trusted friend for as long as he could remember. A proud and noble man, it was hard to convince Meagon to surrender the castle that his father and grandfathers had paid with their lives to defend. But in the end, it was the love that Meagon had for his wife and his two children that persuaded him.

"Take my family." Meagon told ser Blackbeak, but a glint of stubborn determination burnt in his steel blue eyes. The lord of Dagonmourn still had a plan. "Take the women and the children, the old and the sick. Bring them all to the Midwall to safety. Ride out with the last of my good men to protect them. I shall remain in the castle with those who want to stay behind and let them man the battlements to keep up pretence. Once you've led our people a good two days ride away from here, I shall open the gates to our enemies. Fear not for our honor my friend, there will be 90 barrels of dragon-breath stored in the vaults around the catacombs waiting for them. Even if someone survives, the entrance to the tomb will be sealed forever. I swear that the tomb shall never fall into our enemy's hands. I will not bear that shame with me when I face my ancestors."

The sound of drums was rising again in the mist. It was a grisly warning, commanded by the Dark lord to remind the lord of Dagonmourn that he was still waiting for a reply. _That man must be deaf or completely insane to want to listen to that insufferable, ceaseless pounding that goes through metal and bone._ Ser Bleakbeak thought. That heinous sound had not stopped since their arrival. Not even during battle.

It was time.

Ser Blackbeak went down into the courtyard and found lady Gwendelyn, the doe-eyed beauty of the Northlands, dressed in a simply green silk dress for travel, her long golden hair combed down over her shoulder. She was helping her two young boys to get inside the cabin of a two-span. When she saw ser Blackbeak, her courage abandoned her, and she turned to Meagon in desperation.

"Don't make us leave." She pleaded softly to her husband. "You've seen what he did to our brave knights. How can you trust him?"

"He swore to ser Blackbeak on his family's name. What will this world turn into if a lord cannot be trusted on his honor." Lord Dagonmourn stroked his sweet wife's face. "Go with the children. Take good care of them. I will follow soon." The lie came difficult to him, for Meagon was an honest man, and lady Gwendelyn knew him too well. The painful truth was written plainly on his face. "Meagon." She whispered. "Please, don't do this."

"Don't make this more difficult for me." His heart was aching by the very sight of her tears, but he turned to ser Blackbeak and slapped a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Keep them all safe."

"I will my lord." Bleakbeak swore, and ordered his men to escort the good lady to the waiting carriage. She climbed in reluctantly, tears streaming down her cheeks. She kept looking back at him when they rode off the courtyard through the open gatehouse till he finally disappeared out of her sight.

Ser Bleakbeak mounted his steppenhorn. With one last silent nod, he said goodbye to his lord and dear friend and rode out with four of his best knights. They passed by lady Gwendolyn's carriage, and went riding up front. The rest of his men were ordered to flank a long line of carts, riders and people on foot, all fleeing the settlement. The exodus of the desperate refugees was watched in silence by the dark riders. Their red eyes gleamed coldly in the slits of their battle-helmets.

When the entire group had crossed over the drawbridge, the gates were lowered again.

The Dark lord came riding up to ser Blackbeak, followed by a column of fearsome knights. Their mounts snarled at ser Bleakbeak's men as their master's two-headed beast snapped at the flank of ser Blackbeak's steppenhorn.

"You have to forgive my precious Celesta. She has a fearsome appetite, but is a most affectionate creature if you get to know her better." The Dark lord granted him that cold smile again. "You're closing up the gates so soon? I thought we had an agreement?"

"Aye. We had an agreement." Ser Blackbeak said, spitting on the ground. "But you will only be let into Dagonmourn when you have proven to be true to your word. Lord Dagonmourn is still inside the stronghold. He will open the gates once we have a good distance of two days of riding between us and your murderous troops."

If this boldness had offended the Dark lord, he did not show it. "Oh that's very clever. Did he come up with this all by himself?" He grinned. His fingers tapped on the scales of his monster on the beat of the ever present drums. "If so, he has more sense in him than I had expected."

"Will you agree on these terms?"

The smile the Dark lord gave him was chilling.

"I gave you my word, didn't I?" He offered him a gloved hand.

Ser Blackbeak hesitated for a moment before extending his own. In the corner of his eyes, he just caught the flash of a blade before his world vanished in a red roar of pain. He fell from his mount and rolled over the ground. His severed arm dropped next to him in a muddy pool, while the raw throbbing stump of his shoulder bloomed red. The lord of the dark riders looked down on him, unimpressed by the bloodshed.

"I am afraid that my word does not mean that much to me." He said, as if he was explaining his cruel action to a child. "And any family honor I once had, died with the last of my bloodline, many lifetimes ago." He gazed up at the battlements in cold contemplation. "Your lord is taking me for an idiot if he believes that I will grant him two days to let him prepare for his noble sacrifice. I want my price. Perfectly intact."

There was a quick movement of his ice-blue eyes. No words were needed. It was as if he could control the dark riders with his mind, that they were merely his army of puppets, cold and efficient. In one straight line, they marched into the group of frightened women and children, taking out their longswords.

"Oh great merciful Gods of Salt. Mercy! Have mercy on them!" Blackbeak begged, but his pleads were smothered by horrific cries as one of the knights sliced through a pregnant woman's belly. Ser Blackbeak's men immediately began to attack in retaliation, and chaos broke out. As he lay dying in a puddle of his own blood, ser Backbeak thought he could finally hear the Dark lord shout out his commands to the riders, although his lips never stirred.

_Keep Meagon Dagonmourn's wife and his two sons alive. Kill the rest. Kill them all._

Ser Blackbeak's vision faded as the drums pounded and pounded, keeping to their vicious rhythm while his own heartbeat slowed, beating fainter and fainter, till it finally became still.

2.

_The Present._

"I can't believe I am not in Sheffield." Donna uttered excitedly, taking in the surrounding sights. They were riding up the moors on some sort of alien horses that the Doctor called steppenhorns, but looked to Donna more like giant walking birds. Hers was green like cooked cabbage and made clacking noises that reminded her of a hen that was about to lay a very large egg. "It looks just like some national park in the north where they shoot movies like Wuthering heights, or oh! The hound of the Basketvilles! I love that one with Sherlock Holmes!"

"It's called the Hound of the Baskervilles, not Basketvilles." The Doctor corrected her as he half-turned around on his mount. His steppenhorn had golden feathers and a silver beak and was very much like the Doctor, quite easily distracted. "Are you English, or what?"

"Funny. I always thought it was Basketvilles. Anyway, this doesn't look very alien for another planet."

"Ah the wonderful workings of parallel evolution." The Doctor mused. "You should know that the planet of Saltsea is orbiting around a star that is equal in size of the Earth's sun. Plus the distance from Saltsea to the Mourning star is almost the same as the distance of Earth to the sun. And that taken together that the planet is roughly about the same size and composition as planet Earth, and the life-forms that evolved here are also carbon-based and their genetic code is written in DNA, it is actually not that strange that the two planets are so very similar." He pointed out.

"Yeah right…Except for the bird-thingy that is." Donna opted.

"I said _almost_ the same. There bound be some weird little quarks." The Doctor told her, waving his hand dismissively.

"Imagine that, every animal on this planet bigger than a bug is descended from some sort of primitive dodo. Makes me wonder what the humans look like. Do they have feathers instead of hair on their head and a beak instead of a nose?"

"You mean humanoids, human-like creatures, not humans. There is only one human race." Explained the Doctor. "And only one Donna Noble." He added with a tired grin.

"They look like us."

Donna was surprised to hear him speak up. Hesitantly, she glanced in the Master's direction. Surely mister Grumpy wasn't talking to her?

"Sorry?"

"I said that intelligent life on this planet looks like a Timelord, or a human, if you prefer." Mounted on an ink-black steppenhorn that had such a foul temper that it could easily match that of its rider, the Master glared at Donna with great annoyance. "What? Do I need to draw stickfigures now to help you figure it out?"

"No." Donna mumbled. It was the first time the Timelord had spoken to her since they landed. It suddenly felt so incredible awkward that she didn't know what to say to him. Luckily, the Doctor helped her out.

"The Saltmen. That's what they call themselves." The kinder Timelord explained to her. "You've already met them in that southern colony where we landed with the Tardis. It's a shame we cannot land a little bit further up north closer to the wall, but you never can be too cautious."

Donna knew what he meant. It was Rassilion. They were here to track him down, and although the Doctor had not exactly explained it to her, she was clever enough to imagine the kind of horror scenario that will unfold if the ghost of that evil Timelord of Christmas past gets his hands on a working Tardis. They were still days away from their destination, and already she noticed that both Timelords were increasingly reluctant to speak out the cursed "R" word, as if the name itself was enough to summon his presence.

"Anyway." The Doctor continued. "Legend has that their race was created by an ancient God, who molded the first of their kind to his own likeness."

"Oh…Like in the bible with the bit about God creating Adam and Eve?" Donna asked.

"A bit like that, yeah." The Doctor smiled. "You see? There are parallels with Earth everywhere on this planet! I guess you would call this parallel civilization." The Doctor mused. "Doesn't sound right though. Not a catchy word, parallel civilization. Not like parallel evolution."

"Gods of Gallifrey, have mercy on me for getting involved in a conversation with you two." The Master complained. He only had spoken to the annoying redhead because he had hoped that it would finally shut the two of them up. Listening to that duet of continues tortuous ramblings felt like parts of his cortex were being gradually replaced with fabric softener. He had rather been deaf.

The sight of the Middle Wall came as a relief. It was about time too, the Master had been counting the seconds ever since they left that stinkhole in the south.

The imposing manmade structure snaked through the landscape, draping itself over the hills and valleys like a grey stone dragon that lay resting amid the green fields.

"Wow. Look at that." Donna gazed up to take in the impossible scale. "That must have taken a while to build."

"Quite impressive, hey?" The Doctor turned his steppenhorn and began riding along side the wall. "Longer than the great wall of China. You can see it all the way from space. I could let the Tardis do a couple of orbits around Saltsea when we leave. It almost runs over the entire planet!"

"If you want to impress a girl, at least pick a prettier one." The Master rolled his eyes and stirred his mount forward.

"Oi! I heard that!" Donna objected.

"I am not trying to impress her." The Doctor muttered, baffled by his friend's snide remark.

"You're not a very social person, are you? It's like all you can do is insult people."

Donna argued. She meant it. If this was all that the Master ever had to say to her, she would rather have him remain silent and miserable.

"And when you open your big loud mouth it is all shallowness and idiocy. Since I suffer as much from your company as you from mine, I think we're pretty much even." The Master snorted.

"You two, stop arguing." The Doctor said. "We're here."

_Here_ was a gatehouse the size of a small castle, with dark stone walls crumbling of age, infested with the dead branches of ivy and pox-marked with green and yellow moss. There was a narrow gateway, but it was closed off with a rusty iron gate.

"Where is everyone?" Donna didn't see any guards. "Shouldn't there be someone around to look after this place?" It was only to be expected. Although she had never been to the Middle ages, even she knew that a proper castle was supposed to have men with metal helmets and swords around.

The Doctor peered up the battlements, his hand raised to shield his eyes from the sun. "There." He pointed out to her. "They're just facing the other way." He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. A gray mass that Donna had mistaken for a stone ornament turned around and looked down over the partitions.

"Who are you?" The mountain of a man asked, He was dressed in full armor and had a flaming red beard. "Friend or foe?"

"Oh we are definitely friend." The Doctor reassured him. "I am lord Smith from Gallifria, and these are my travel companions, lady Noble from Chiswicksonia, and lord Sa-"

"I am lord Oakdown." The Master answered for himself. "Not from anywhere in particular." He added with a smirk.

"Rrright." The Doctor said, a bit annoyed by the Master's self-proclaimed alias. "We've come to seek passage to the other side. We want to journey up north."

"You better turn around and head back strangers. No-one is allowed to travel beyond the Midwall. The north is off-limit and the ways are closed."

"I have official documents, stamped with the royal seal of the king of the Kroneburg colony. You must grant us passage." The Doctor replied, waving the psychic paper in the air. Kroneburg was, as Donna recalled, the heavily guarded settlement in the south where they had landed. They had spent one night there to prepare for the journey, and they had bought supplies and the riding animals on a nosy market place in front of the royal castle. The Doctor had never spoken or even seen the king of course, but for a good man, he could be a remarkably skillful liar when he needed to be.

The Doctor flashed him a toothy smile, but the guard's single eyebrow remained stuck in a distrusting scowl. "Stay where you are." The guard barked, and disappeared inside the corner tower.

"Well, that's it then." The Master muttered. "I am just having a déjà vu of what happened to us in France. Wonder if these giant chickens can outrun a rain of arrows, what do you think?"

"Just wait and look confident. You'll be surprised how often this works." The Doctor mumbled back to him, keeping his polite grin plastered on his face.

"Ah, there they come. The reception party." The Master mumbled as he watched how the iron gate was drawn up and a group of heavily armed men came out to meet them, their sharp axes and pointy spears shimmering in the watery sun. "Such a warm welcome, I truly feel touched, don't you?"

"Shut up." The Doctor whispered. "Hello there!" He bellowed enthusiastically. He tried his best to keep up a calm and friendly façade, even though everyone in the group was giving him aggressive looks. "I am lord Smith from Gallifria and –"

"I know who you are!" The lord of the gateway answered. He was a huge, muscular man with a neck as thick as an ox and a wild red beard, which seemed to be very fashionable around here. Every word that came from him sounded like a command. "You are a company of idiots who want to travel beyond the Midwall to their early graves because you think the grass on the other side smells less of Ramhorn shit! Let me tell you, it's complete foolishness. I've been staring at that same path of land for the last 15 years, and it looks and smells exactly the same on this side. So why don't you fools stop gambling with your life and turn around." He was actually standing so near to the Doctor that he was breathing his ale-breath into his face.

"Uh…we cannot do that." For a moment, even the Doctor seemed slightly taken aback by the man's all imposing presence. "Me and my companions must travel further up north. We have the king's approval right here." He waved the psychic paper in the man's beard. It was as effective as holding a red blanket in front of a charging bull.

"You can stuff that piece of worthless paper up your ass!" The loud man responded. "I am not letting you through. My family has guarded the gatehouse of the Midtower for centuries. Ever since the lord of Dagonmourn has fallen we are the only men left standing between the evil that stalks the northern lands and the people of the south. When I took my cloak I have sworn to protect them, all of them, even really stupid ones like you! So I am telling you for the last time. _Turn around_!"

"I like him. At least he's honest." The Master stated dryly. The Doctor jumped off his mount and hurried after the reluctant commander. "You know I didn't quite catch your name. Shall we start again?" He told him while he walked backward and extended his hand to him with a broad smile. "Hello I am lord Smith from Gallifria, and you are?"

The red bearded man stopped and gave the Doctor a long hard look, while the rest of the Saltmen stood in a semi circle and waited. One of them tapped his bludgeon on his palm with great impatience.

"I am ser Robert Titanis, the guardian of the Midwall gatehouse."

"Ser Titanis, if you will not grant us passage, at least be a gracious host and invite us to stay as your guests for tonight."

"You…what?" Redbeard muttered, eying the Doctor up and down.

"We've been traveling for days now, sleeping under the stars out in the open fields. Me and my companion are not complaining, but lady Noble is used to so much more comfort and luxury."

For a moment, ser Titanis looked like he might succumb to another fit, but then his features softened and he burst out in a bellowing laughter.

"You're strange and skinny, and a downright idiot! There are sabertooths and terrorbirds stalking over the moors after sunset. It is a small miracle that the three of you have gotten this far without being eaten." He waved at the Doctor to follow him. "Very well. I can offer you a hot meal and a soft bed for one night, but tomorrow you'll have to leave." He pointed out sternly.

"Sounds good enough to me." The Doctor replied. With a triumphant smile, he put his hands inside his pockets and strolled behind Titanis and his men. He was followed by the Master. Donna climbed off her bird and rushed after him.

"That wasn't the plan, was it?" She whispered to the Doctor. "Please tell me we didn't wobble on the back of a giant Christmas turkey for three days to just come here and be told to head back."

"Sssst." The Doctor told her, putting a finger on his lips. "Don't say that."

"Don't say what?"

"That word. Turkey. It's very rude in Saltmen's language."

"I am going to say a seriously rude word to you if you don't do something to justify the blisters on my bum."

"One night." The Doctor told her, tapping the side of his nose. "Tomorrow we'll be on our way, but not in the direction ser Titanis wants us to."

3.

Ser Titanis proved to be a most generous host. The three of them were each given spacious rooms. Donna's room was in one of the towers facing south. It had a tiny window with tinted glass, and a large comfy bed with a soft feather mattress. She also found a small washtub and a smelly bucket behind a row of curtains, which the Doctor told her was to be used as a toilet. It wasn't exactly the Hilton hotel, but for a civilization that had not yet invited the very concept of a bathroom, this wasn't too bad. After freshening up with the hot water that the servant girls brought up, she felt a great deal more like a lady and less like a wandering tramp. When she went downstairs and ventured inside the hall to look for the Doctor she found the whole castle busy with the preparations of a grand feast. A comfortable fire was roaring in the hearth and the two long tables were groaning with the many bizarre looking dishes stacked on top.

"Not bad hey?" The Doctor remarked as he strolled over to her casually. "I don't know about you, but I really had it with having turnip stew each night. Not that it is not nutritious, and you do need your daily intake of vitamin E, A and B, but variation is still good for the appetite. Also the turnips gave me an awful lot of gas."

"Lord Smith." Ser Titanis came over to greet them. "Lady Noble." He took her hand and planted a fat kiss on it. "You have the most radiant smile. Sit with me at the head of the table as guests of honor."

"Did I see that right? Were you flirting with him?" The Doctor commented when he noticed that Donna was fluttering her eyelashes quite a lot and was blushing like a bride.

"I wasn't! His beard tickled. I am ticklish. I am easily tickled."

"Donna Noble, shame on you! You're almost a married woman now. What would Shaun say!" The Doctor teased.

"Oh stop it." She gazed around. "Where is that gloomy partner of yours?"

"He'll show up." The Doctor was looking for the Master himself, but he knew better than to transfer his worries about him over to his human companion. They sat down next to each other while ser Titanis took the seat at the head. The guards of the Midwall were rounding up at the tables, while the servants came in with pitchers of wine to fill the empty cups.

Titanis stood up and raised his drink. "To our guests from the south!" He roared.

"To our guests!" echoed his men and emptied their mugs to the very bottom in one gulp.

"You guys surely know how to party around here." Donna smiled, and feeling peckish, she grabbed the leg of what looked like a roasted ostrich and tucked in. The Doctor scooped a plate full from what was a truly frighteningly large mountain of scrambled eggs.

"Saltsea cuisine. Yum! Absolutely love it! And it's healthy too with only lean white meat on the menu." He commented, dipping a carrot into the eggs and nibbling on it.

"And from what land does my beautiful guest come from?" Ser Titanis asked. His cheeks already had a flash of alcoholic crimson.

"I am from Chiswick…I mean Chiswickidonia." She couldn't quite remember how the Doctor had called it. "You probably never heard of it. It's far far away from here." _Like on an entirely different planet._ She thought.

"I think I know that place. Is it in Dornshire?"

"That's right." She lied and nodded. "Chiswick in Dornshire, somewhere in the deep south." She spotted the Master, sitting quietly in the corner at the other table. "Tell me ser Titanis, why are you and your men guarding this wall?" She asked out of curiousness.

"What do you mean my lady?"

"What's on the other side? Why is it so dangerous to go out there?"

"You mean you don't know?" Ser Titanis gazed at her in puzzlement. "Every man, woman and child knows the dark history of our lands. Surely your must have learned from your elders what the purpose of the Midwall is?"

"Nope. I am afraid I didn't hear any of it…because….I grew up in a convent." She quickly made up. "A very strict one. We were only allowed to speak once in a year on our birthday."

"Really? But that's barbaric!"

"Yeah well. You get used to it." She suppressed a sigh of relief when she realized that he was actually falling for it. "So what about the Midwall? Why is it here?"

"The Midwall was built by my ancestors to defend the north from the tribes in the south."

"So it was originally built to guard what is up in the north? But today you said you and your men are here to protect the people in the south?"

"That's because after the fall of Dagonmourn, the lands in the north are cursed, stalked by the evil spirit of the fallen God Dagon. Don't you know the song of the creation of Saltsea?" Ser Titanis asked when he noticed the look of confusion on Donna's face.

"Again, convent girl here. I really don't know a lot about the outside world."

"What were your companions thinking when they decided to take such a delicate flower up here. My poor child, you must be terrified." Ser Titanis said, shaking his bearded head, but he continued. "Legend has it that our great Salt God, the creator of our world and others, was the first among the immortals. Together with his brother Dagon, he stood at the birth of time, and witnessed the illumination of the stars and our Mourning sun. But before the time of the Saltmen, they created a world of their own. A place of serenity and beauty, where they ruled together over their own people for millions of years. The first Salt God ruled with wisdom, while his younger brother Dagon ruled with his heart. But unlike the rational mind, the heart can easily become corrupted, and Dagon began to resent his older brother for forcing him to share his power. So Dagon plotted against him. He knew that his brother loved the act of creation, so Dagon led him to a part of the great black sea where the Mourning star was burning in an empty sky filled with only lifeless rocks, and challenged him to make a world that rivaled their own in beauty."

"So that's how your world was created?" The half-eaten roasted leg was getting cold on Donna's plate, but she was so absorbed by Titanis's story that she had all forgotten about her appetite.

"Aye. The Salt God raised the mountains, filled the great lake with crystal water, seeded the grounds with plants and trees, and breathed life into every living creature that flies, runs or swims on the surface of the Salted earth. He showed his creation to Dagon with great pride, but his brother acted indifferently. Brother, he told him, is this the best you can do? This planet, although teaming with all sorts of creatures, is dull and unattractive to beings with a great mind like ours. Can you not create something that is so very beautiful, so truly and absolutely irresistible, that even immortal Gods like us cannot withstand its appeal?"

"And, did he take the second challenge?"

"Of course he did. No one may underestimate his magnificence, not even his own brother."

"What did he make?"

Ser Titanis's wine-glazed eyes glinted with pride. "A woman. The first of my people. The mother of the Saltmen." He took a long swig of his cup. As soon as he emptied it, a servant came and filled it back up to the rim. "She was so bewitchingly beautiful, long golden hair, a skin as white as virgin snow, with large doe-like eyes, full of innocence and carnal sin. When the great Salt God was finished and looked at his creation, he could not help himself from falling deeply in love with her. She felt the same of course, who would not love a God, but unlike him, she was a mortal."

"What happened?" Donna asked, leaning on the table with her head resting on her hand.

"He could not be with her unless he sheds his immortality, and with that his power to rule. But he longed for her so much and was so heartbroken when they were apart that he decided to give up on his immortality. He split his soul in two, and hid his immortal part in stone. He turned into ordinary man, a mortal, just to be with her."

"Oh I love romantic stories, Romeo and Juliet, Lancelot and Guinevere, Posh and Becks, especially when there is a happy ending. There is a happy ending in this, right?" She asked hesitantly. "He's not gonna cheat on her with a saucy nanny?" She paused. "Wait a minute, his brother Dagon…"

"Of course this was all according to Dagon's plan. As soon as the Salt God became mortal he seized absolute power and tried to eliminate him while he was still vulnerable, trapped in mortal flesh."

"Oh that's terrible. His own brother."

"Kin slaying is a most unnatural and heinous crime indeed." Ser Titanis admitted grimly.

"And, did he succeed?"

Ser Titanis shook his head. "Praise the glorious Salt God, Dagon failed. The mother of the Saltmen knew of his plans and warned her lord in time before Dagon was at the gates. The Salt God took back his immortality and defeated Dagon in the great battle at Dagonmountain. His beloved wife, however, perished."

"Oh that's so sad." Donna exclaimed, sighing deeply. "How did she die?"

"There are no songs of her demise. No legends about her death, but it shattered the Salt God's heart."

"What about evil Dagon, what happened to him?"

"He was captured and punished for his crimes." Ser Titanis was still drinking more than he was eating, and Donna was starting to wonder how much it would take for a Saltman to pass out drunk. "The Salt God split his brother's soul in half, taking away his immortality and power, and entombed him alive. His prison was christened Dagonmourn, for this act of justice was like a dagger in the merciful Salt God's heart. Although it grieved him to punish his own brother, he knew that the hunger for power had corrupted him to the core and driven him to madness, so he could not let him free. For the sake of the whole creation, Dagon must be imprisoned, forever."

"So that's why you lot are sitting here on this massive wall. You're keeping people out to prevent anyone from getting to Dagonmourn."

"Clever guess my lady. Are you sure you belong to the same company of idiots as lord Smith?"

"Trust me, he's not an idiot. Sometimes he acts like one though. It's a repressed childhood thing. He's not the only one." She gazed at the Master who was still sitting on his own, nursing a drink in his hand. "You know they should really consider giving group therapy a try. I don't know what happens to little boys on their home planet, but it seriously messes them up." She stopped, realizing that Titanis wasn't following her. "So you were saying something about the Salt God?"

"The Salt God mourned his actions. He wept rivers of tears for his fallen brother. From the mud of the flooded banks, he molded my ancestors."

"The first of the Saltmen were made using the salt in the tears of the Salt God." Donna realized.

"That's right my lady. The Saltmen were created in our Lord's image to guard the secret of Dagonmourn. A great citadel was build on top of Dagon's prison, and the first lord of Dagonmourn took his oath that he and his sons, and his sons' sons after him will forever serve the great cause, to protect the universe from the evil that lurks there. For thousands of years, our people have succeeded in that task."

"But now the lands beyond this wall are dangerous. You said that some evil spirit is stalking the moors?"

"Dagonmourn." Ser Titanis said, his merry mood darkening. "It fell."

"But how?"

"A warlord arrived from the stars. Mounted on a beast from hell he came riding from the south with a dark army of knights, so soulless and vicious that they left a bloody trail of death and destruction across the land. The lord of the dark riders deceived Maegon, the last lord of Dagonmourn, and slaughtered his brave army before he took control of the citadel. In a desperate attempt to protect the tomb, Maegon's last act was to seal the entrance to the underground by destroying the entrance. He only partially succeeded. The dark lord vanished. Some say he was slain, others claim he transformed himself into a four-legged beast that was incarcerated in the heart of the labyrinth tomb. But Dagon managed to escape from his prison. Severed from his corporal form, it now wanders the northern land, a mean and vengeful spirit, able to distort the soul of any creature or man, feeding on the fear and suffering of those who are so unfortunate to fall victim to his corruption."

Ser Titanis gave Donna a long and lingering look, and she realized that although he had too much wine, she should not doubt the wisdom of his words.

"We, men of the Midwall, are the last who stand against the danger of the north. If we fail, Dagon's ghost will invade the heavily populated regions in the south. When that happens, the most unthinkable horrors may become reality. The fate of the entire universe will be at risk."

4.

Ser Titanis's tale had stirred up deep worries in Donna's heart, and it had certainly robbed her of her appetite for the rest of the evening. The Doctor however, was merrier than ever. He had wandered away from the table to a group of guards at the back of the grand hall. By the time Donna came over to tell him what she had heard from their host, he was bellowing along a dirty song about a drunken sailor and lonely pirate with his arms draped over the shoulders of ser Titanis's men.

"Oh that..." He reacted to Donna's information. "That's old –a very old story! Absolutely ancient. A good one though."

"So you're telling me you knew all this?"

"Not that bit about the dark lord. It's always good to learn more about a real classic. It's those interesting little details that makes a story really come to life." He added with a blushing grin.

"You're drunk." Donna remarked.

"And you are in triplo." The Doctor murmured happily while he swirled his finger at her. "Honestly, two of you should really go away now. I can handle one Donna Noble, but not triplets."

Donna rolled her eyes and pulled the Doctor away from his new drinking pales. "You better get away from them before you say something that you gonna really regret in the morning." She whispered in his ear, and dragged him out of the grand hall before he could embarrass himself any further.

5.

It was only when she had dragged him all the way up to his room that she realized that he wasn't in such a bad state after all.

"Right." The Doctor sat upright as soon as the door was closed. His eyes awake and alert, he jumped up from the bed like a coil where Donna had dumped him, and ran over to the little window.

Donna looked at him with a really annoyed expression on her face. "You're not drunk?" She spat.

"Nope. Not with that lame stuff they're serving downstairs. It takes a real stiff drink that would floor a platoon of Judoons to get me that far. Hyperactive liverfunction due to a genetic duplication of the _Alcoholdehydrogenase gene, it's one of the minor drawbacks of being a Timelord, it's almost impossible to get us drunk."_

"Unbelievable. You made me drag you up all those flipping stairs, while all the while you could have walked on your own!" Donna fumed.

The Doctor remained blissfully unaware of her growing resentment. "We had to keep up pretence. The Saltmen are men of honor. A man's word is to be trusted, even that of a stranger, but that doesn't mean they're stupid. I bet that right now, there is guard standing behind that door to keep an eye on us."

"Oh don't be so suspicious. There is no one there." Donna opened the door wide to show him. One of ser Titanis's men was standing in the corridor. The Doctor gave him a friendly wave. "Eh sorry, keep up the good work." He told him, giving him the thumbs up before he slammed the door shut.

"He wasn't there just a minute ago." Donna muttered in surprise.

"Keep your voice down. Of course we're guarded. Ser Titanis wouldn't want us to sneak out in the middle of the night, now would he." He went back to the tiny window. "This is facing too far north. I can't see the battlements. How is the view in your chamber?"

"Not much better. A tiny square hole in the wall and it's facing the roof of the hall."

The Doctor retrieved Martha's cellphone from one of his many pockets. "That's no good. We need to know when the milkflower is starting to work." He punched in a number and the line went over.

"Who are you calling?"

"The Master." The Doctor replied.

"He's got a cellphone?"

"Actually, it used to be your granddad's." Replied the Doctor, ignoring the wide eyed look Donna was giving him.

"With the reception desk of hotel Gloomview. How may I help you?" The Master purred through the speaker.

"Stop fooling around. How's your view?" The Doctor asked him.

"Oh it is spectacularly dull. Makes you almost sad enough to cry. And don't get me started on the appalling sanitary facilities they're providing. You should come up here and see. It's practically medieval."

"Can you see anything from the window?"

"I have a perfect view of the northern gatehouse. Right now, two men are guarding the parapet wall."

"Keep an eye on them. Give me warning as soon as they starting to look a bit drowsy will you?"

"What's going on?" Donna asked as the Doctor ended the call and went back over to the window. "Why would they be drowsy and what the heck is milkflower?"

"Milkflower, the white lilly of the flooded mountains, also known as derilarious decilaris in Judoonish. It's a medicinal plant, not from around here, but from the planet of Desmondos. The inhabitants have used it for centuries as a mild narcotic. The Master distilled it down into a concentrated form before we got here. It was up to him to slip a bottle of that stuff in the winebarrels, before the servants brought out our drinks from the kitchen. Everyone who had wine is going to be knocked out in a couple of hours. When that happens, we sneak out to the stables, get our animals and leave through the northern gate. By the time Ser Titanis and his men wake up again, we will be miles away."

"Wait a minute. It was in the wine?" She slapped him on the shoulder. "You could have said something! I had a full cup of that stuff!"

The Doctor, slightly intimidated by her, quickly fished out a phial with milk-white liquid out of his pocket and tossed it over to her. "Here, empty that in one go. Don't let it linger too long on your tongue. It's absolutely vile."

"What's this?" Donna stared at the bottle in her hands.

"A neutralizer. It does what it says it does. It neutralizes the milkflower. You'll be fine."

"What about that guy at the door?"

"Oh that's Olaf!" The Doctor told her with a silly little grin. "I remember Olaf. He tried to drink me under the table a couple of times! Don't worry. That big loaf is going down and snooze like a battalion of Judoons before nightfall."

They waited till the grey sky had turned dark, and the stars and the two moons were out. Donna was half asleep with her head resting on her arm by the side of the bed when a cheery jiggle went off. She jumped awake. The Doctor grabbed for the phone.

"Wakey wakey sleepy heads." The Master told him. "The guards on the gatehouse are unconscious. It's time to go."

The Doctor was right about big oaf Olaf. He was a loud sleeper. "He even sounds worse than my old nan." Donna whispered as she and the Doctor tiptoed over him when they left the room.

"Well it's not much worse than what I hear from you." The Doctor said, as they ran down the narrow circular staircase.

"I don't snore." Donna objected.

"Oh yes you do." The Doctor replied. "And How." He whistled. "Maybe I should tape it sometimes. You can have a listen for yourself."

"Oh no you don't!"

Inside the great hall, the men were all lying face down on the table. Some of them had their heads flat on their plates. She saw Titanis, muttering aggressively in his sleep with his red beard dipped in a bowl of stew. They rushed out, passing a corridor where servants were slumped down in the corners. They were fast asleep. The trays of food that they had carried were spilled all over the floor.

"Everyone must have gotten a bit of that potion." She muttered. "There is no one left awake in the entire castle."

"No one but us." The Doctor grabbed a loaf of bread and some fruit from the floor and stuffed it in his pockets. "The Master is waiting outside."

"Are they going to be all right?"

"Oh they'll wake up with a massive headache, I am talking about the Mother of hangovers here, but apart from that, let's say it won't keep them from nipping of Dionysus's nectar next time around. Come on! Don't linger! Let's go! Let's go!"

Donna ran after the Doctor as fast as her legs could carry her. They came out into wide open space of the bailey.

"What's that smell?" Donna stopped running. "It's like something is burning."

The Doctor also stopped dead in his tracks. He had been heading in the directions of the stables, but it was only now that he realized that the thatched roof of the building was emitting an eerie orange glow. In the dim light, he saw dark smoke rising.

The stables are on fire.

He ran forward, his long skinny legs leaping over the cobbled stones. "Master!" He yelled, fearing something horrible might have happened to him. "Master! Where you?" When he came near enough, he saw the flames licking the side of the wooden structure, while the beams that supported the roof had turned into burning amber. From the outside, the doors were barricaded with a stack of heavy barrels and timber.

"Master!" The Doctor yelled, rushing to the burning stables.

"Don't go in there."

The Doctor swirled around. The Master was standing in the courtyard near the northern gatehouse with their steppenhorns. The animals were all saddled up and carried a light load of provisions on their back. "Are you mad or what?" The Master shouted at him. "It's been burning for while. That roof can collapse any minute."

"How…" The initial wave of relief was quickly replaced by a sense of sheer dread. "Did you set the stables on fire?"

The Master smiled as if was all just an innocent prank. "I've raised the gate so we can get the hell out of here. Ser Titanis's riders won't be able to follow us now that their riding-animals are cooked to a cinder."

"You think you are so clever! What about the people in the citadel? Right now they are all unconscious and unable to respond. The whole castle could burn down with everybody in it!"

Suddenly, there came a loud banging against the barred wooden door from the inside of the burning stables, followed by a desperate plea for help.

"Oh my God. There are people trapped inside!" Donna gasped. "Doctor! They can't get out!"

The Doctor's disbelief twisted into pure disgust. "You knew." He backed away from the Master, his eyes full of anger and resentment. "You knew that there were people in there and still you locked them up to leave them to be burnt alive!"

"What are you doing?" The Master watched how the Doctor grabbed hold of a large empty cart and started pushing it towards the fire. "Get on the steppenhorn!" He was losing his patience. "Doctor! Listen to me!"

"I am not listening to a murderous madman!" The Doctor huffed. "Donna, give me a hand!"

She immediately understood what he wanted to do. Grabbing hold of the other side of the cart, they both wheeled the wooden vehicle right up to the flames, making as much speed as possible.

"On my count." The Doctor told her. "One, two, three!"

They both let go at the same time and the cart smashed against the obstructions, shoving it aside so that the doorway became free. A hand stuck out of the opening. Two men wriggled through the narrow passage and ran away from the burning building. Their faces were covered in sooth and they were coughing ceaselessly, but otherwise, they were unharmed.

"Fire!" Cried one of them as soon as he had the air back in his lungs. "Help! The stables are on fire!" He turned his head around and saw the three strangers standing next to the burning building.

"The gate." He stumbled to the northern gatehouse and found it wide open. "Close the gates!" He cried. "They are trying to get to the north!"

"Idiot!" The Master hissed. "Now are you satisfied? For the last time, GET ON YOUR MOUNTS!" He climbed on the back of the black steppenhorn and short reined the animal for a sharp turn. He kicked his heels deep in the flanks and rushed out of the north gate without looking back. The Doctor helped Donna on her saddle and slapped the back of her bird to send it running after the Master.

"There he is!" The other man he had somehow managed to wake up one of the guards. "That's him! He's the one who set fire to the stables! Get him!"

But before the Salt men could get their hands on the Doctor he had jumped on his mount. Stirring the bird into a full gallop, he rushed in a straight line over the bailey to the north gate, and was just in time to make it to the other side before the iron gate came clashing down.

**_TBC_**

Next chapter will be uploaded next Saturday the 21th of April. Please comment or review if you like the story. Cheers. A.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**1.**

The path behind the Midwall up to the north was nothing but a muddy dirt road scattered with broken rocks, and heavily overgrown with weed. The steppenhorns had trouble finding sturdy ground under their feet, and progression was painstakingly slow. Combined with the biting wind and the miserable drizzle of rain that kept their coats damp throughout the entire day, the moods of the three traveling companions were becoming increasingly gloomier and irritated.

"For the last time, can you slow down!" The Doctor yelled at the Master who was riding up front as he glanced back over his shoulder at Donna. Her bird had slipped when they crossed a narrow stream, and had injured its paw. It was now limping behind the group with a swollen joint. "Donna is falling behind. She can't keep up with us."

"I do remember you telling me that she wasn't going to be a reliability." The Master shouted back without looking at him or slowing down. His own beast was pushed close to exhaustion, but he wanted to keep going till at least after sunset and put a good distance between him and the men of the Midwall, the small inconveniences of the Doctor's human pet be damned.

Donna cried out when she suddenly felt the weight of the bird lean too far to the left. The backpack shifted and her steppenhorn lost footing, throwing her from his back as he collapsed. Donna landed on a path of grass, her leg pinned down beneath the weight of the giant bird.

The Doctor jumped off his mount. Pushing his shoulder against the back of the animal, he tried to roll the beast off her. The Master finally turned around to see what the racket was all about.

"Can you at least lend me a hand with this?" The Doctor fumed.

"She is not my responsibility." The Master replied coldly.

The Doctor uttered a cry of anger when he finally succeeded to push the bird off Donna's leg.

"Are you all right?" The Doctor asked, really concerned. "Can you still feel your leg?"

"I am okay…I think." She responded bravely, although her face was as white as a blank sheet of paper. She tried to move her feet and wriggle her toes. Her sheen was bruised purple and covered in mud and feathers, but otherwise, everything still seemed to be functioning. "A bit squashed, that's all."

"That's it. We are going to set up camp for tonight." The Doctor decided.

"Don't be an idiot! We're not going to stay here. Not with ser Titanis's men still on our trail." The Master objected.

"Where are they then?" The Doctor replied angrily, waving his hands around. "You're not even sure that they're following us."

"Of course they are following us! These Saltmen live and die for their duty. We had a good chance of getting rid of them until you ruined my plans!" The Master replied with deep resentment.

"Don't you even start!" The Doctor warned him. The memory of the Master's horrific act still enraged him. "Donna was almost injured. The birds are too tired to move on. We stay put till tomorrow morning. No more discussions!"

"Oh this is rich!" The Master laughed sarcastically, throwing his head back in despair. "I said, she was not my responsibility! I knew this would happen! All she has to do is sit on her fat ass on the back of bird and still that clumsy ginger airhead is causing us trouble!"

"Oi! Who died and made you the new Fuhrer?" Donna sneered back.

"Tell me, what is your responsibility exactly?" The Doctor stared at him, eyes blazing. _Don't you even dare to make up another excuse to abandon her._

"Is there a single day in your selfish little life when the sun does not revolve around lord Oakdown?"

The Master straightening his jaw and raised a single finger. "One night." He grudgingly admitted. "At least let us get off this road then. Unless you want to camp right here in the open and let ser Titanis's searching party trample all over us." He turned his steppenhorn and took out the longsword that he had confiscated from one of the guards. With brisk angry sweeps, he started cutting a path through the thick bushes, pretending it to be a certain someone's head.

**2.**

It took a while for the Doctor to make a fire. Even with the sonic and laser screwdriver at hand, it was nearly impossible to light up the damp timber that they had gathered for fuel. When it finally burnt, the three of them huddled around the small circle of warmth, letting the flames cast out the dampness in their clothes and warm their half-frozen bodies.

"Anyone for a piece of toast?" Donna took an incinerated crumb of bread on a stick from the fire. Her companions didn't respond. The Doctor stared through the flames at the Master who sat at the other side, as far away from the others as possible.

"I thought we also had a bit of cheese somewhere." Donna kept talking, just to keep that awful silence away. Rummaging through the backpacks, she found a smelly yellow lump completely covered in grey fluff. Maybe she could cut off the bad pieces. "Anyone fancy cheese on toast?" She asked as lightheartedly as she could pretend to be.

"Why did you lock in those men?" The Doctor muttered, finally deciding to get it off his chest.

A bitter smile crossed the Master's face, but he didn't say a word.

"Those were Ser Titanis's men. You sat at their table and laughed with them while you shared their supper. They trusted you." The Doctor paused, finding it impossible to believe that these things, these very _human_ things, appear to mean so very little to him. "Something is wrong. There must be…" His eyes locked with the Master's. "Ever since we arrived on this planet, you've acted differently. This is not you. Since you lost the drums you've been reckless and mad at times, but never _truly_ cruel. Not without a reason…Tell me…what's wrong?"

"Why do you care?" The Master responded.

"Because when you're alone, the silence is maddening." The Doctor whispered, leaning closer to him. "But you're not alone. You're never alone. Not while I am here."

A twig snapped in the woods. It startled the Doctor and Donna. The Master wheeled around, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "Who is there?" He called out into the dark.

"Who…who are you?" Rasped a haggard voice through the thick tangle of branches.

"We're travelers." The Doctor answered, peering between the tree trunks to get a glimpse. "We mean no harm. We're just passing by."

"No-one can cross this land. No-one." The ghostly voice continued. "The roads are closed. The woods are shut. The marshes locked. No-one can reach the ruins of Dagonmourn."

"Come out! Show yourself!" The Master barked, taking his sword out from the sheath.

"Put that away immediately!" The Doctor told him firmly. "There is no use for it."

"Oh I'll be the judge of that." The Master responded defiantly, rolling his tongue over his lips.

"Master, this got to stop." The Doctor pleaded. "Every time you give in, you're drifting further and further away from me. Don't you see that?"

There was a moment of hesitation in the Master's eyes, and the Doctor was about to reach out and take away his weapon, when a creature leaped out of the bushes and landed on the Doctor's back, smacking him to the boggy floor. The Doctor cried out when ten dagger-like talons cut into his flesh and clawed over his spine. He managed to turn and stared into his attacker's face just when he leaned over him. Long strands of dirty white hair flowed over red eyes that burnt in a lean, starved face. A foul stench assailed his nose when the creature opened his mouth and showed him a graveyard of rotting teeth.

He heard Donna scream when the blade swooped low over his head. Then the grip of the talons lifted from his back. The nightmare creature rolled off him, screeching and bleeding.

"Arghh! You cut off my ear. My beautiful ear! You brute! You monster!" It rolled madly into a muddy pool, covering his bloody wound with both his hands. The Master kept him at the end of his sword. "Murder! Murder! You murderer!" It wept, staring crazily at the Timelord. "You murdered me!"

"Oh please, it's just an ear. Don't be overly dramatic." He could not even bring up a crumb of compassion for the cowering creature. In fact, after seeing what he had done to the Doctor, he could cut this madman up into ribbons in a heartbeat.

"Are you all right?" He turned to his friend, who was struggling to get up with Donna's help. The back of his coat was smeared with mud and crimson, but the Doctor nodded, straightening himself.

"So, what do we do with this vile _beast_?"

"It's not a beast." Donna said, when she came closer to have a better look. "It's just an old man." She stared at the wretched filthy creature coiling away from the Master.

"Man or beast, let me shut him up first. He's giving away our position, screaming the entire wood together." With a cruel grin, he pressed the tip of the blade onto his chest, and a pinprick of blood broke the skin. The man howled in fear.

"Stop that!" The Doctor pushed his sword away and shoved him aside. The Master watched with astonishment how he knelt down beside the old man. "Oh you're welcome!" He finally said, hardly containing his discontentment.

"Calm now." The Doctor said in a soothing voice to the frightened old man. "I am not going to let him hurt you. My name is the Doctor and this Donna. We're friends, we're not going to harm you."

"Oh really, he wasn't exactly friendly to you when he tried to rip the skin from your back." The Master stated, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"He was just scared. He didn't know what or who we were." The Doctor tore off a piece of lining from his coat. "Here let me help." He lifted the man's hand from the side of his skull to reveal the raw stump of what was left of his right ear. With Donna's help, he bound the wound, careful not to cause the poor man any more pain.

"You shouldn't have done this." The Doctor breathed, gazing up at him with a judging look on his face.

Something snapped inside the Master. "Of course, the good and righteous Doctor, our sainted physician! Excuse me your holiness, but I think I have to go somewhere and retch up my dinner!" He stuck the longsword in a treetrunk and walked away, seething with anger.

**3.**

"It's all right. It's just me. I've got something for you to eat." Donna told the old man, and handed him a piece of bread from their meager provisions. She was dead tired. The campfire was dying out, and dawn was fast approaching, but none of them had slept more than a couple of hours. The Master had insisted that, since the Doctor won't let him get rid of their attacker in his own bloody way, they have to tie the old man down. _To keep him wandering around the camp in the night, looking for an opportunity to rip our throats._ He had half-joked with a grin that was all about defying the Doctor. She didn't really want to be affected by the Master's paranoia, but he did plant some very disturbing ideas in her head, and it was difficult not to be afraid after she had seen how the wild man had injured the Doctor. _It's not the right to do, but as long as he doesn't get hurt, it's safer to keep him tied up._ She justified to herself, but she still felt compelled to be extra nice to him to make up for keeping him prisoner.

"Feeling any better?" She asked, as she watched him devour the bread. The man nodded, but his bloodshot eyes kept darting over at the Master, who was sitting on a rotting tree trunk a few meters away, busy sharpening his sword on a piece of flint. The sparks illuminated his face in an eerie glow. Even with the prisoner's hands bound behind his back and a rope around his neck, the Master wouldn't stop keeping an eye on him.

"You don't have to be afraid. The Doctor and me won't let that lunatic harm you." She said to reassure him. "Do you have a name?"

The wild man gazed vacantly at her.

"What do they call you?" She tried.

"They call…They don't." He shook his head. "They don't call. They don't speak to me. They only whisper. Even when they do, they don't have a name for me. Not anymore."

Donna felt really sorry for him. Obviously, the old man had lost his wits. "What are you doing here out in the woods all by yourself? Don't you have a family or friends?"

The old man shook his head, the dirty strings of hair swept in front of his eyes. "No-one. No-one but me. The moors have swallowed them all." He ran his purple tongue over his ruined teeth. "I watched them die. Every single one of them."

"I am so sorry." Donna whispered, not sure what to say.

"Don't be. They're better off than I am." A sad smile cracked his lips and he leaned forward, his gaze flashing nervously from the Master back to her. "Why are you traveling with _him_?"

"What do you mean?"

"He's a murderer." The wild man whispered. "It's his eyes." He pointed at his own with two fingers. "His face had changed, but the eyes always remain the same."

Donna felt frosty fingers claw down over her spine and tickle the back of her neck. _Don't take this too seriously. He's mad._ She told herself. _Running around the freezing woods in nothing but your birthday suit is an obvious gave-away hint. _"Let me go get some water for you." She told him, getting up.

"You saw it too."

She stopped and turned around. Her eyes met the man's wild and frightful gaze.

"Inside the cathedral. He had that same murderous look when he watched the witch burn." He licked his lips, his red eyes pleading. "Get away from him." He whispered. "Run away child. Run away from the monster while you still can."

**4.**

The Doctor sat on a damp patch of grass not far away form the camp. He was looking up to the sky through a hole in the canopy of swaying black leaves. In his hand he held white point star. It was the very same that they had retrieved from the Watcher's clan of Rassilon worshippers. By turning it up at different angles, he was trying to catch the light from the Hydra constellation.

"Don't you ever get tired of playing with that dusty old thing?"

Surprised by the mild tune in voice, the Doctor looked up. The Master stood in front of him. He was smearing oil over the blade of his sword with a dirty cloth.

"I told you to get rid of that." He told him sternly.

"Of course. Never mind it saved your life."

"_You_ saved my life. Not this cold inert object with the loathsome capacity to kill."

"Don't be ridiculous. People kill, Doctor." The Master replied, rolling his eyes at him. "Not weapons."

"And you saved me, but it doesn't mean there was any bloodletting involved."

"Now you're reasoning in circles." The Master sighed. He sat down next to him. "Be careful now. It's the first symptom of madness. Believe me, I should know."

There was a ghost of a smile on his lips. It was the first honest smile that the Doctor had seen on the Master's face, a genuine smile that reached his eyes, ever since he came to know about Rassilon. It was in these rare moments, when he could still see a glimpse of the Master's old self shimmer through that cold mask of indifference that he resented Rassilon the most for what he had done to him. _My dear old friend, you don't know how much it pains me to see you like this. _The Doctor thought. _The real battle has not even started and I have already lost a part of you, a part that was sincere and good._

He picked up a stick and drew a circle in the dirt, placing the white point star in the middle. The dull blue glow that shimmered with the pace of a Timelord's heartbeats cast an eerie light on his face.

"Is it time for the cosmic oujia board again? Oh you must be desperate." The Master teased.

"It led us to Saltsea and I know it wants us to head up north, but it's not clearly telling us that Rassilon is waiting for us at the ruins of Dagonmourn." He studied the drawing and drew a line over one-third of the circle to mark out the Midwall.

"You're afraid, aren't you?" The Master spoke softly. By now he could read the Doctor's face like an open book. "You don't want to go there because you fear what you may find. These Saltsea primitives have their own ghost stories about that place, but we, the children of Gallifrey, know the truth. What is inside that tomb, kept hidden for thousands of year, can change the entire universe."

"And that's exact the reason why we have to make one hundred percent sure that the drums are really leading us that way." The Doctor told him sharply. "I won't lie to you.I am afraid,_ as you should be. _Dagonmourn is but a legend in the stories of our Elders, but even so, if there is only just one word of truth in the heart of it, then that should be reason enough to fear it."

"It could be falling into the hands of Rassilon, right now."

"If Rassilon is there we have no choice but to go to the tomb and deal with him." The Doctor said gloomily. "If not, I swear, there is not a bone in my body that doesn't scream for me to turn around and run."

He drew a triangle in the upper corner of the circle. That's Dagonmourn." The Doctor pointed out, feeling a cold rope coiling around his hearts. "Now show me the way to Rassilon."

The white point star drifted upward. A brilliant dot in the darkness, it caught the light from the stars in the sky, and bundled it into a single blue beam. The light swept over the circle, Searching. Guiding…and finding.

The Doctor felt the tug of the rope snap tight in his chest when he saw what the star had pointed out.

"I think we have no choice. Doctor." His friend picked up the diamond and handed it back to him. Before the Master strolled back to the camp, he wiped the markings away, where just seconds ago, the blue beam clearly had pointed out the small triangle in the top of the circle.

**5.**

Donna's steppenhorn could not be saved. It had fractured its legbone during the fall and in the end the Doctor had to put it to sleep using what was left of the concentrated milkflower. The birds were not strong enough to carry two people at the same time, so they were forced to continue the journey on foot, while using the remaining two animals to carry the luggage. The decision was taken under loud protest of the Master, but eventually, even he had to comply when his own steppenhorn was crippled after he tried to force it through a thick path of thorn-roses.

"This is about the right moment to start shouting _a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse_." He complained. "These beasts are useless." He was dragging the prisoner along, jerking on the rope that was tied around his chest. The old man's hands were still tied behind his back to stop him from trying anything. "Come on you lazy shit!" The Master barked, and kicked him in the back. "We don't have all day. We pretty much wasted most of it on her."

"Stop it!" Donna protested, appealed by the way he was mistreating the poor man. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I am trying to make progress." The Master sneered. "Honestly Doctor, can you at least gag her so we don't have continuously suffer her stupidity?"

"Why don't you let him go?" The Doctor asked, giving him a disapproving look.

"Oh yes, why not? Release him so he can creep back up on us when we are asleep and claw our bloody eyes out. Brilliant plan!" He applauded with a crazy grin. "Here, why don't you just take my sword and cut my throat right now? Let's spare the poor fellow a hell of a lot of trouble."

"Not every one is as bloodthirsty as you are." Donna argued back.

"Wanne bet?" The Master told her with a deep loathing in his eyes.

"Hush, both of you!" The Doctor told the two hotheads. "Listen!"

The clatter of talons scraping on stone revealed to the companions that a horde of riders was heading their way.

"Quickly." The Doctor urged, pulling the animals into the bushes behind him. "We can't outrun them. We have to hide."

They had just all moved out of sight when the riders arrived. From her hiding place under a cookook bush, Donna could see through a hole in the tangle of twigs the lower half of the steppenhorns. She counted 4 pairs of legs in total.

"Why did we stop?" A commanding voice that she recognized as that of ser Titanis asked.

"It's the birds ser. They can't pick up the scent anymore." Someone answered.

"They can't lose that trail! We've been riding for two days without rest, and we found those fresh footprints only this morning. Surely they must be close now."

"Wait. I think they found something again. They're heading off the road."

"We can't stay here. It's too close." The Doctor whispered. "These birds can sniff us out blindly." He pushed through the shrubs, signaling the others to follow him when the Master suddenly uttered a muffled cry. The wild man had his teeth locked on his arm with the rabid determination of a wolf. "No." Whispered the Doctor when he saw the Master reaching out for his sword. He would have almost certainly cut the man to pieces if not one of the rider's steppenhorns had stuck his head through the bushes. The Master's blade severed the back of the bird's neck, and sprayed the wildling's face with a shower of crimson. The wild man finally let go of the Master's arm, shouting bloody murder, while the giant bird swayed on his feet, and then collapsed, crashing to the ground and burying the rider underneath.

"They are in the bushes!" One of ser Titanis's men yelled. "They've cut down Olaf's steppenhorn!"

The Doctor pulled the Master away from the wildling. "You had no right to do that!" He shouted at him with anger burning in his eyes.

"I can see that you idiot." Titanis bellowed outside. "Don't just stand there! Help him to get that beast off him. You. Come with me!"

"Doctor! They're cutting away the branches!" Donna warned him, backing away from the sweeping swords and the falling branches.

"We have to get out of here." The Doctor mumbled. "Come on! Quick!"

They left the birds and the bags behind, and fled deeper into the shrub land.

**6.**

Twigs swept in the Doctor's face as they ran. The muddy ground became softer till he needed to pull out his feet from the sinking ground with every step he took. As they fled, bitter thoughts toiled inside his head.

He could hear River whisper to him in a voice that was all reason and kindness. _He almost killed him. A man who was utterly defenseless. He is beyond redemption. You cannot save him. He's too far gone._ _Doctor, come to your senses._ _Let him go, before it is too late._

No.

Not now. Not ever_._

"I hear flowing water." The Doctor shouted to the others. "This way, if we can get to the stream, the birds won't be able to follow our scent."

They stumbled forward in the direction of the sound, the shrubs growing thicker around them as they headed into the heart of the wild vegetation till they finally reached the bank of a murky stream. The Doctor went in first, wading through the water till he was submerged to up to his waist.

"Come on." He held out his hand to Donna, who took it. The Master was about to follow when the wild man started pulling on the rope.

"No! No! Not in there!" The man begged, scrambling away from the shore. "It's bog water! It's filthy. It's diseased. Don't get near it!"

"Come on you crazy old loon! Stop complaining, it's probably cleaner than you are." The Master jerked hard on the line, dragging him into the stream. The old man splashed wildly when he plunged in and squirmed frantically as if he was drowning, while the water still had to reach his waistline.

"It's the dead!" He shouted. "They're all around us. I can taste their blood on my tongue! These streams flow thick with it!"

"Shut up! Or I swear I will cut out that offensive tongue of yours!" The Master threatened, grabbing hold of his cheeks, and pinching them together to make his point.

The water indeed had a rusty color, but that didn't worry the Doctor as much as how the Master was handling the prisoner. Luckily, the old man was less mad than he appeared to be, and wisely shut his mouth.

"We head upstream. That way." The Doctor turned away and waded through the icy water, keeping Donna close by his side. _It's like he's getting worse and worse. _River's voice whispered to him. _Have you seen how he dragged the old man into the water? He is treating him like a dog. He has no compassion. He will never known any. You try to teach Doctor, but your pupil is incapable to learn._

"Doctor?" Donna asked. She could barely keep up with him and the grip on her hand was like stone.

He shook the voices out of his head. "Where is the Master?" He shot a bewildered glance over his shoulder to look for him.

"He's just behind us. Something wrong?"

"Nothing. Just…Nothing." He swallowed hard and licked his lips. The water was reaching higher, and the rusty color was slowly turning into a darker colour.

"Doctor?" Donna suddenly stopped. "Please tell me that's your hand."

The Doctor lifted his hand that held on to Donna's hand, staring at her with confusion.

"The other one?" She asked hopefully.

The Doctor showed her his free hand.

"If that's not you, who the heck is grabbing hold of my leg!"

She screamed and swallowed a lung full of water when a violent tug dragged her under. She struggled to hold on to the Doctor, but her hand slipped through his wet fingers. The bright silver roof rushed above her head as she was pulled downstream by an invisible force. Panic seized her when her lungs started to burn. She opened her mouth and her cries escaped in a string of bubbles. Then a blade cut through the water. The pull on her leg immediately ceased. A hand locked her arm and she was hauled to the surface. As she coughed and wheezed, she gazed through her dripping strands of hair at the man who had saved her life.

The Master looked back at her in silence, his face unnaturally pale.

"What? What was that?" She asked, her voice trembling, she looked down at his sword. The sharp edge was dripping with blood.

"Donna!" The Doctor splashed through the water to get to her. "Donna! Are you all right?"

She nodded and noticed how the Master quickly dipped the blade in the stream to get rid of the blood smear.

"How could you ever think that was me?" The Doctor asked. "I can never reach down there while I was standing up!"

"I don't know! Anything better than to think that some very large fish was nibbling at me."

"What happened?"

She realized that from that far, it must have looked like the Master had just hauled her back up on her feet. She gazed at the silent Timelord, waiting for him to say something. Anything at all. _Come on. I saw how you looked at me when you dragged me out. You were as scared as I was. Why don't you want the Doctor to know?_

"I slipped." She finally said. "My feet got caught in a bundle of underwater roots and I panicked. I know, it's just stupid. " She shrugged, wondering why she telling this lie to the Doctor for the Master's sake.

"At least you're not hurt." The Doctor replied with a sigh of relief. He noticed that she was shivering. "Let's get back on dry land. We've been following this stream for quite a while now. This should be more than enough to get them off our trail for a while." He took her hand and waded back towards the shore.

**7.**

The banks of the stream were swollen, and the threes stood with their roots submerged in the dark, still water. Although there was daylight shimmering through the canopy of yellow and red leaves, the woodland was cast in darkness. The Doctor waded through the icy water. Crimson leaves dropped from the branches and drifted on the tranquil surface. There were no birdsongs, no wind rustling the leaves above his head. The woods were still and dead. Except for the voices. At first he could not make out what they were saying to him, so very soft were their whispers. It was only when he headed further downstream that they became louder and clearer. _Take my family. _He heard someone whisper. _Head straight south for the walls. Keep them safe._

Then, there came a different voice with different regrets. _These devils don't fight like Saltmen. We had no chance._

_His honor is all a man has, he won't break his vows._

_Please my love, let us stay here with you! Don't make us leave._

_You are the most beautiful creature I've ever seen. Compared to you, all the stars of the galaxies fade to nothing._

_Don't take my children! Don't harm them! Spare them! I beg you, please! NO!_

The woman's cry echoed through the woods and cut through him like a knife. Then the trees suddenly started to drop their leaves. A snowfall of yellow and crimson drifted down to the flooded forest floor. He was shocked to see that where they broke the surface, the water turned into blood.

_Why do you keep shutting your eyes?_

"River?" He immediately recognized her, even in that whirlwind of voices.

_How can you still trust him after what he did to our men?_

_Don't touch me! Get away or I swear I will cut my own throat!_

_My sons, my two beautiful boys! What have you done? You MONSTER!_

"River!" The Doctor shouted, covering his ears to block out the other heart-wrenching cries. "River where are you?"

_Open your eyes Doctor. Open your eyes and see him for what he truly is._

A woman rose from the deep dark water. She wore a white gown that was obscenely torn and showed her breasts, swollen and rotting. A big gash ran over her belly from where her entrails dangled like a nest of pink worms. She looked at the Doctor, her eyes red and inflamed from her salted tears, while drops of blood dripped from the spiderweb tangles of what remained of her hair.

_You should have seen what he did to my boys. My two beautiful boys…Doctor. _She whispered._ Open your eyes. Open your eyes and SEE!_

He gasped when he struggled awake, bathing in sweat and his old hearts pounding inside his chest. He wheeled around, and saw Donna sleeping next to him, curled up in a ball. The Master was lying a little further away. Rolled up in his cape, he was also fast asleep and dead to world. Even their wild captive was slumped against a tree and snoring.

The Doctor took in a deep breath to calm himself.

It was just a dream. There was no dead lady in the water, and there were no whispers. The woods were still…until a piercing cry shattered the silence and scared the birds out of their nests in the nearby trees.

Donna trashed awake. "What? What's going on? What the heck was that?"

"It's coming from the nearby stream." The Master muttered, his brown eyes fully alert, he stared anxiously into the dark woodlands.

The Doctor headed in the direction of the cries with his companions on his heels, following the path that they had cut out through the thick foliage during daylight. They soon reached the banks of the narrow stream that divided the forest. In the scarce light that came through the breach in the canopy, they saw a young man standing up to his knees in the water. He was wheeling his sword around like a mad windmill.

"Stay away from me! I've got nothing to do with this. It wasn't my fault! I am not a deserter, I swear! Stay away!" He kept hacking and slicing with his sword as if he was defending himself against an army of invisible enemies. His eyes were white and wild.

"What is he doing?" Donna gasped. "There is no one here. Who is he fighting?"

"He's hallucinating." The Doctor breathed and ran over to him. "Stop!" He yelled. "Stop! Please!"

"Who are you?" The young man screamed, looking at the Doctor as if he had just appeared out of thin air. "Are you with them?"

"Me? No, no! Absolutely not. Who-ever _they_ are, I am not with them."

The young man glanced around nervously. "They are whispering. I can hear them. They're everywhere. In the water. In the air. Even in the trees. They're blaming me for everything."

"Then stop listening to them! Come on now, look at me and let's talk." The Doctor noticed the emblem on the young man's shield and cape that depicted the sign of a watchtower. "You're one of Ser Titanis's men, aren't you? What's your name?"

"It's Gellard." The young man swallowed. "Gellard the butcher's son they call me…because…well because my father was a butcher. If that makes any sense."

"That's makes very good sense Gellard." He smiled at him. "Nice to meet you! I am the Doctor. Now listen to me. I need you to calm down. You're not in any real danger. There is no one here but us and we're not going to harm you, so why don't you put that sharp sword of yours away before you seriously hurt someone."

Gellard stared blankly at the Doctor. For a moment, Donna thought he wasn't going to do listen to him, but than the young man slowly lowered his sword.

"Right, that's it." The Doctor encouraged him in a soothing voice. "Now put it over there on that rock. You're doing fine. Now slowly step away. Come." He held his hand out to him. "Get yourself out of that icy water."

Gellard approached him unarmed and with a sullen look, as if he had just been awakened from a very bad dream. "My boots are drenched." He commented to no-one in particular while he kept staring at the ground after the Doctor had pulled him out of the stream.

"What were you doing out here on your own?" Donna asked, studying the lad's pale face.

"I am not…" Gellard shook his head. "I am not on my own. I was sent out here." It was obvious that Donna's question had snapped him awake again.

"Sent here by whom?" The Master inquired.

"Our lord, ser Robert Titanis of the Midwall." Gellard's face lit up with panic. "Oh great merciful Salt God, I was supposed to find Olaf and Jenkin and bring them back for help!"

"What? Why?" The Doctor asked.

"It's my lord, he is in mortal danger. I have to get back to him!" Gellard was about to dart into the bushes when the Doctor stopped him.

"Tell me what happened."

"We went into the woodlands while Jenkin stayed behind with Olaf. We had great trouble to follow your trail, but we kept searching over the muddy riverbanks till we ended up in a part of the woods where the ground had turned into a traitorous swamp. My lord's steppenhorn sank away in the quicksand, dragging him down with him. My own bird was trapped, but I managed to drag myself up on a nearby rock. I tried to get ser Titanis out, but I lacked the strength, so he sent me out to get Olaf en Jenkin. I remember that the sun was almost setting when I left him." Gellard gazed up at the dark blue ribbon of sky above his head. "It's already dark." He concluded worriedly.

"Actually, it's been dark for quite a while now. It's nearing dawn." The Master remarked. "You've wasted a lot of valuable time boy."

Gellard went pale. "I have to head back and free him or the swamp will claim his life for sure."

"Let us come with you." The Doctor offered. "You can't get him out on your own."

Gellard hesitated for a moment, but soon realized that the Doctor was right. "I think I came from that way." He nodded. "Follow me. Quickly!"

**8.**

When they finally reached the swamp it was already dawn, and the first rays of sunlight revealed the muddy forest floor. The small lake of quicksand was half hidden by a field of ferns, and looked deceivingly solid, but the Doctor and his companions quickly found out how deadly it could be when they discovered the remains of a steppenbird sticking out of the ground. Only half of the animal was visible, the other half swallowed by the hungry earth. A large flock of flies buzzed around the fresh carcass. Fat maggots were already crawling in and out of the corners of the eyes and nostrils of the dead bird.

The Master covered his mouth and nose with a corner of his cape. "You're sure he's not buried under this rotting heap? "

"No. That is not my lord's ridingbird." Gellard replied, trying to sound confident but looking like he had lost his way. He cupped his hands around his mouth. "Ser Titanis! Ser Robert Titanis! If you can hear me, please answer!"

The young man looked very discouraged when only a chorus of swamp toads croaked a response to him. "Wonderful." The Master muttered. "I am sure the old man is very capable to reply with his mouth full of bog and flies."

"Shut up. That's not helping." Donna told the Master. "Maybe you remember it wrong." She told Gellard, ignoring the livid look the Timelord gave her. "Let's go down there a bit further. We might still find him." She gazed at the Doctor who put his finger on his lips and shushed.

"I think I hear something." He told the others, and leaped over a path of rocks that jutted out of the swamp. "Follow me. Do exactly like I do. Don't touch the ground!"

The others hopped over the stones after him till they reached a fallen tree resting on a bed of rocks. The Doctor climbed over the trunk and leaned over the wild crown of branches till he was dangling half over into the dark shimmering pool. He cupped his ear and listened. A brown bubble rose slowly up from beneath and burst in front of the Doctor's nose.

"He's here! I can hear him!" The Doctor yelled, wheeling around to the others. He broke off a long heavy branch and stuck it deep into the quicksand at the exact spot where the bubble had appeared. "Come on ser Titanis, grab hold of it!" As soon as he had said it, he felt someone tugging on the other end of the branch. "He's still alive down there!" The Doctor smiled, exhilarated and relieved. "Give me a hand! We have to drag him out before he runs out of air." Gellard and Donna grabbed hold of the other end of the branch and pulled hard. A head emerged from the brown mass, followed by a shoulders and arms. Ser Titanis opened his mouth and sucked in a lung full of air. The whole scene looked like the messy birth of a bogmonster.

"Hi there!" The Doctor grinned. "I am glad you're still breathing. Gellard there was really worried about you."

Ser Titanis blinked the mud out of his eyes before he set them on the Doctor. "You." He gasped. "You! We were out looking for you and your murderous company."

"Ah, you're still have enough breath in your lungs to be angry with us. That's a verry good sign." The Doctor reacted cheerfully.

"You deceitful mongrel! You bastard son of a poxey whore! You deceived me!" Ser Titanis seethed. "I took you under my roof and treated you as honored guests and how did you repay me? You betrayed my trust by poisoning my cup and setting fire to my castle!"

"Oh don't go blaming the poor Doctor for everything here. He only did the poisoning bit. The fire was actually my idea." The Master told him with a proud grin. So far, he had refrained from even lifting a finger to help, but now he was coming closer to the muddy pit. Ser Titanis turned his head in the quicksand to take a good look at him. "I know you." He muttered, narrowing his eyes. "You're that little weasel who was traveling with the Doctor! "

"Hmmm weasel. That's not very flattering." The Master calmly took out his sword and aimed it at the Doctor. "But I guess that sort of manners are to be expected from a bearded brute with all the good manners of a savage orangutan."

The Doctor looked at him with his eyes wide with surprise. "What the heck are you doing?"

"I am trying to save us a lot a trouble later on." The Master replied calmly. "You see, once ser Titanis has solid ground beneath his feet, he won't exactly be cheering for us to complete our journey to Dagonmourn, isn't that right ser Titanis?"

"Definitely not!" ser Titanis yelled back. "You'll be going back to the wall with us, cuffed, chained and dragged behind my mount if you must, but you certainly won't be coming anywhere near Dagon's tomb!"

The Master gave the Doctor an _I told you so_ look. "So, what would remedy this problem? Hmmm, let me think…" Before the Doctor could stop him, the Master swung his blade down on the branch that kept ser Titanis afloat and split it in two. The Doctor, Donna and Gellard tumbled backwards while ser Titanis sank back to up to his chin in the bog.

"Have you completely lost your mind!" The Doctor shouted at him furiously. He hurried to snap another branch from the dead tree and was about to reach it out to ser Titanis out when his companion stopped him. "No." He said in an icy voice as he held the sword pointed at the Doctor's chest. "Not yet."

The Doctor stared at him as if he had just seen him turn into a monster, but the Master remained imperturbable. "Ser Titanis, will you be so good to swear on the name of your house that you will not try to stop us from traveling to Dagonmourn?"

The lord of the Midwall gazed up at him, his cheeks flushing crimson.

"Oh don't be so stubborn. Just pledge that you will not be in our way, and I will let the good Doctor and his companions save you. If not, be prepared to take a deep long breath and sink all the way to the bottom of this stinking pit."

"You crazy maniac!" Donna objected. "Let the Doctor help him. Can't you see that he can hardly breathe?"

"Oh yes, he's running out of air, and out of time." The Master replied with a devilish grin. "What do you say ser Titanis?"

There came a torrent of insults from the keeper of the Midwall that ended in a long string of muddy bubbles as he sank back till up to his nostrils in pit.

"You better be quick with your answer. Soon I won't be able to hear you."

Exhausted, ser Titanis made some muffled sounds before he threw back his head and managed to force some air out of his lung to form recognizable words. "On my house….I swear….I swear it."

"Splendid!" The Master smiled, and lifted the blade. "And remember, a Saltman who does not keep to his word is as shameful as the villain who tricked him into taking an oath." He stepped away and let the others rush over to help the unfortunate commander. When he leaped off the log he came face to face with the Doctor.

"What?" He asked, when he noticed that the other Timelord kept his eyes fixed on him accusingly. "Don't you have something more urgent to do than to chastise me?" He added with a mocking smile. "Your orange friend is still sinking away pretty fast."

"After what you have just done, I do wonder, do you still know how it feels be ashamed?" The Doctor said to him, reproachful of his actions.

The emotionless smile on the Master's stretched to a wide Cheshire cat grin. "Do I look that weak to you Doctor, to know the meaning of such a word?"

He slapped him mockingly on his shoulder. The Doctor didn't react. He couldn't. Any sympathy he had for him had suddenly turned into stone. While the others were trying to get ser Titanis to safety, the Master left and went back to the camp by his own. There he discovered the coil of rope around the base of the tree where he had bound the old man. The fibers had been chewed through, and their prisoner had vanished.

_**TBC**_

_**Hi there! Alan here. I regularly check my visitor statistics and wondered where all you guys who read my stories are from. If you have time, please leave a comment to let me know...I am just curious!**_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

1.

_The Past._

The crows were circling low above the moors. With black pinprick eyes, gleaming with small intelligence, they looked down over the grassy ground below that ran red with blood while flies swarmed thick over the sea of corpses. With great impatience, they waited for the living to part so that they could come down and feast. The birds would have to wait a little longer, for although the Lord of the dark riders had won the final battle from his enemies, he still had yet to claim his price.

A line of long wooden pikes had been raised opposite the outer castle wall of Dagonmourn on the dark Lord's orders. On each and every one of them, a head was mounted. Dipped in tar to keep them from rotting, the unfortunate victims stared blindly up at the sky with their mouths gaping wide, frozen in their final gaps before the swords had so cruelly cut short their lives. Men, women and even children, all united in a macabre celebration of death.

Lord Dagonmourn stood on the battlement with the last of his men. His heart wept when he recognized the tar-blackened faces that stared back mournfully at him in silence. Oh how he cursed the day that he had first heard those wretched drums. Even now, he could hear them pounding in the distance, a devil's heartbeat that echoed over the moors, spreading this great evil over his land.

"Did you come to talk terms, my lord?" The master of the dark riders called out from below. "Or did you just come out to admire the view?" A wide grin, obnoxious and vile, spread over his lips as the dark haired youth turned his gaze to the east. The first glow of morning dawned at the horizon. "Isn't it just wonderful?" He said mockingly. "A fresh start of a brand new day. The birds are singing. The smell of wet grass is in the air, and then the most wonderful sight of your incompetent minions, dead and rotting. Why, the very sight of it almost makes me want to burst out in a song!" He laughed.

Lord Dagonmourn was trembling of rage. "They were just servants! Unarmed. Innocent women and children. You've promised them mercy!"

"You didn't keep your side of the bargain, so why should I?" The smile disappeared from his adversary's face. "You people are so dim that you don't seem to be capable to understand the concept of an agreement. Let me explain it for the zillionth time. You give me what I want, and I give you what you want in return." His voice was low and threatening. "So, let's try again. You give me Dagonmourn, and I give you this."

A woman was dragged forward by the riders. She was stripped down to her white undergarments, and even that was obscenely torn, revealing her right breast and the red bruises on her fair skin. Her long golden hair framed her pale face in wild, wind swept manes. The very sight of the wretched woman turned Meagon's heart to ice. His enemy had captured lady Gwendolyn.

"You monster! What did you do to my wife?"

"Me? Nothing of course." The dark lord made a face of pure disgust. "Such a bestial thought that I would somehow find pleasure in bedding an inferior species. I was planning to give her to my troops. These soldiers have a far lower standard then me…and with such a pretty specimen like her…let's say it's good for morale."

Lord Meagon's grip on his sword tightened when he saw the dark lord stroke his wife's tear-strained face. Although the touch was almost tender, she flinched. "You keep your hands off her or I swear…"

"Maegon!" Lady Gwedolyn sobbed. "He has our children! Please don't let him harm them!"

"Oh yes that's right, your kids." The dark lord flashed him that despicable smile again. "What are they called …it's on the tip of my tongue…Rob-Robert, yes, and Walter, the two precious little lordlings. To be honest, I thought I've lost them till my riders caught them shivering behind the bushes like two frantic baby fawns."

A snap of the fingers and the two boys were presented to him. There was a change on lord Dagonmourn's face, a look of pure horror and pain that the Dark lord found most satisfying, when the father noticed the hangman's nooses dangling around their little necks.

"Viper!" Meagon seethed, balding his fists. "How can you stoop so low? To use children as your shield!"

"Oh believe me, I can stoop even lower. If you don't give me what I want." The Dark lord taunted. He turned to his handsmen. "Get them ready. That tall tree over there will do. Make sure it's in plain view of the lord of Dagonmourn. I want him to be able to enjoy the whole show, till the very last spastic jolt."

"Dear God of the Salted Earth, no! Please don't! Don't hurt them!" Lady Gwendelyn cried out and fought her captors like a wounded lioness to get to her children. She was silenced with vicious blows on her face.

"Please…no…have mercy." Meagon muttered. "Not them. Not my family."

"Then lower the bloody drawbridge!" The Dark lord yelled back. "Hand Dagonmourn over to me and your wretched offspring shall be spared. If not…watch them dance with their little feet kicking the air."

"You don't understand…I can't forsake my duty. I've sworn an oath to protect this castle till my very last breath."

"And what about your house? Don't you have a duty as a husband or a loving father? Do you really want to see my men kill them, hmm? Look them in the eyes and tell them in their face that your honor is worth more than their lives!"

The lord of the Dagonmourn stood on the walls of his castle, his face red with anger and his eyes filled with tears, but otherwise silent.

"Very well." The Dark lord turned to the children. "Sorry kids! It seems that your daddy don't really care that much about you after all, tough luck." He gave his men the signal, and the two of them were led to an old oak tree. The ends of the ropes were tossed over a low hanging branch and two steppenhorns were brought forward. The children were made to stand on the back of the animals, while the Dark riders pulled tight the ropes.

"On my signal." The Dark lord ordered, ignoring the heartbreaking wails of the boy's desperate mother. "Let the birds ride and the little lordlings fly."

"Wait!" Lord Dagonmourn shouted. His chin was quivering. "Spare their lives! Please!"

The Dark lord stopped his men. "You'll let us in?"

Lord Dagonmourn nodded, defeated. "I'll hand Dagonmourn to you."

The oldest of lord Dagonmourn's sons Robert was little more than a child, but instead of pleading for his own life he shouted bravely at his father. "No! Don't hand the castle over to him. He's lying father. He killed ser Bleakbeak and cut off his arm when he offered him his hand. You can't trust him!"

The child's appeal came as a surprise to him. Annoyed, the Dark lord turned to the defiant youth. "Shut up! You want to die little boy?" He whispered maliciously.

Hot tears pricked in his eyes. "You can't scare me. I am not afraid of you." Little Robert answered. He bit in his lower lip till it drew blood.

"Is that so." The smile that the Dark lord gave him sent cold shivers down his spine. "That's a brave lad, but what about your little brother? Are you brave for him as well?" He slapped hard on the back of the steppenhorn, and the animal bolted in fright. The support fell away beneath little Walder's feet and he was left dangling in the air. His tear streaked face turned blue as he was strangled. It abruptly silenced his pitiful cries for his mother.

If young Robert had a sword, he would have used it to cut down the tyrant. But he was helpless, and had to watch how the light slowly died in his younger sibling's eyes. After a while, Walder stopped struggling, and left his arms swinging limp by his side. His mother's pleads finally stopped, and a mournful silence fell over the moors.

The Dark lord calmly walked over to the last remaining offspring. He looked up at the boy's father, and waited.

"No more." Lord Dagonmourn's voice was that of a broken man. "No more bloodshed…I'll lower the bridge. You and your bloodthirsty band of murders can take over my castle. Do with me whatever you want, but please, spare my firstborn. He's the last of my blood."

"A very wise decision. I am sure your poor wife is grateful."

"No father…No." Robert was trembling and his heart was pained with grief and a deep sense of loss. His brother's eyes were still open, and they stared at him as if to question why his older brother couldn't save him from this horrible fate. His mother was on her knees in front of the tyrant, her white dress smeared with dirt and blood, staring vacantly at her dead child. "Please. Don't kneel for him." The young lordling begged.

"You're a brave boy Robert. A very good boy, but I have lived long enough." Lord Dagonmourn took out his sword and tossed it over the parapet before he turned to the Dark lord. "I offer myself in his place. Spare him. Spare my wife. That's all I ask."

The boy knew that that horrible decision would seal his father's fate. The monster would never let him live. His father had always taught him to be brave, to protect his family and his honor. For the men of the Salted Earth, there were no things of greater value. So he did what he had to do. He took in a deep breath, and cast his eyes over the castle where he had spent his happy childhood for a final time. He watched his father, standing on the battlements, defeated and broken. Then he closed his eyes, and jumped to his death.

2.

"For the last time Doctor, I don't need your help." Ser Titanis was as stubborn as he was fixated on his duty. "As soon as we reach the middle road, we will part our ways. My men and I will go back down to the south, while you and your foolish companions proceed your journey to the north. I will no longer stand in the way of your death wish." The bitterness in the lord commander's words was not hard to miss. Even though the Doctor had saved his life, the fact that the Master had compelled him to forsake his oath still stung him like a sore wound.

"At least take one of our steppenhorns." The Doctor offered. They had left the campsite early in the morning and were making their way through the muddy woodlands, following the trail back to the spot where they had left the main road. "It's still a two days ride to the Midwall. Six if you go on foot entirely."

"If you can still find them, you can keep your wretched birds." Ser Titanis replied. "Not even the fiercest sabertooth or the most brutal pack of terrorhawks will be as perilous as the monsters who stalk the haunted lands around Dagonmourn. I wish you the best of luck. You lot will need it since you absolutely seem to lack any common sense."

Gellard, who had walked up the front of the group, was the first to stumble on the dead animals. One of them was the riding-bird the Master had beheaded, the other was Jenkin's steppenhorn. Both were already wriggling with maggots and had turned stiff in the limbs. Deeply worried by this discovery, the two Saltmen started searching for their brothers in arms, but both Jenkin and Olaf seemed to have disappeared.

Donna's stomach turned when she saw how the last bird from ser Titanis' group had been viciously ripped apart. "It looks like it was mauled by a pack of hungry wolves."

"Not wolves." The Doctor crouched down beside the dead steppenhorn and took out his glasses to study it more closely. "There are no wolves are here. It wasn't a large carnivorous bird either. Look at these marks. This animal was killed with a sword or a dagger." There was a path of deep crimson that spread out underneath the carcass. Carefully, the Doctor dipped his finger in the stain and sniffed, rubbing the sticky fluid between his fingers.

"Why would any of my lads butcher a perfectly healthy riding animal?" Ser Titanis muttered. "It makes no sense."

"No ser, it's not them. It's this place." Gellard said, remembering the whispers. "When I was lost in the woods to get help…I heard these…these voices. They put horrible visions in my head and drove fear in my heart. I was wielding my sword, defending myself against unseen monsters till the Doctor found me and brought me back to my senses. What if…Jenkin and Olaf had heard them too…and were driven so mad by them that they took out their swords to fight each-other…"

"That's pure nonsense!" Ser Titanis spat. "The sworn brothers of the Midwall will never turn on each-other! We are men, not beasts!"

"And yet, this blood does not come from your riding animal." The Doctor said. "Saltman's blood has been spilled here."

Ser Titanis tightened his jaw as he digested the bad news. "This is all your doing Doctor!" He fumed. "If it wasn't for your selfish quest these young lads would never have set foot on this cursed land. If anything has happened to them –"

"Oh stop it! It wasn't the Doctor's fault." Donna defended him.

"I'm sorry." The Doctor admitted.

"Why do you apologize?" Donna protested. "You can't get blamed for everything that goes wrong here. It's these woods. This place. Like Gellard said, it does things to people."

"But I led them here." The Doctor looked ser Titanis straight in the eyes. "And I promise I will do anything, absolutely anything I can to get them out."

A bitter laugh that mocked the Doctor's very sincerity suddenly came from the Master. "And so the Doctor's conscience has spoken. You may now be reassured about the fate of your two idiot minions." He crossed his arms and smiled joylessly. "Oh don't look so doubtful Redbeard. You have to put some faith in him for his _magic_ to work. We all do. Our saintly savior has never let anyone down. You will be saved, even if the good Doctor has to drag you to your own redemption, kicking and screaming."

"Don't you ever know when to shut your gob?" Donna told him angrily, but the Master just ignored her and kept laughing.

"This blood trail is heading north, just like our yellow brick road." The Master pointed out. "If you want to known what happened to your men, you have to venture further then anyone of the Midwall has ever gone before. To a dark place, where there will be monsters."

"I cannot return to the Midwall without them. These men have sworn their loyalty to my house, and I have sworn to protect them." Ser Titanis said with grim conviction.

"Then you have to come with us!" Donna opted. "If we all stick together we'll be all a whole lot safer, right?"

The Doctor nodded. "What do you say ser Titanis? Would you let us help?"

After a long moment of hesitation, ser Titanis finally gave in.

3.

The road wound down the hillside, out of the woodlands and into a valley covered in wild scrubland. Donna was relieved to finally leave the woods behind. Too many bad things had happened in the shadow of those tall dark trees. The wide open space that lay before her seemed far less threatening, and for the first time since they have left the Midwall stronghold, she actually felt a little bit at ease.

"This doesn't look too bad." She told ser Titanis. "When the sun comes out, this place is actually quite beautiful. From those scary stories you've told me, I was half expecting to step into some kind of horror version of Mordor." She noticed the anxious look on the Salt lord's face. "Don't you worry about those boys. The Doctor will find them. You're not the first person that he has helped before. He's been doing this for ages, and got pretty good at it."

"Is that what that weasel companion of yours was going on about?" The Salt lord gestured in the direction of the Master. "The Doctor has helped him too?"

"Oh don't drag him into this. The Master's a special case." Donna muttered. "I've not known him for very long, but he and the Doctor…it's a long story, but it doesn't mean he isn't grateful…I guess."

"My lady, I've lived a long life, and in my days I have seen and known all sorts of men. Some people just don't want to be saved. As for this land, it may look peaceful on the surface, but underneath this thin layer of life, it's dead and rotting." He pointed out the passing fields with borders marked by crumbling walls. "This used to be the Valley of Abundance. Fields of golden grain stretched out as far as the eyes could see, with vast herds of ramhorns and cattlebacks roaming the hillside. This patch of land, blessed with plenty of rain and sunshine, used to feed the millions in the colonies of the south. Now it lies abandoned. The rich soil left bare to be washed away by the elements."

"No one lives in this area anymore?" Donna asked.

"Aye." Ser Titanis nodded. "Hundreds of farms and villages are all emptied out, abandoned by the living."

"Why did everyone leave?" Something that lord Titanis had told her came to her mind. "Were they fleeing for the army of the Dark Lord?"

"My grandfather was lord of the Midwall when he witnessed the great exodus from the Northlands, directly after the fall of Dagonmourn." Ser Titanis answered grimly. "What came to him for shelter and protection was an endless procession of wretched beings, dying of cold, hunger and disease. Those poor people had lost so much, and yet they were the lucky ones. Even before Dagon's spirit was released from the tomb, the Dark lord and his army had purged this land with fire and blood. Entire villages were destroyed, the inhabitants massacred, and the once fertile fields burnt down till the earth itself turned to black ashes. There is no real life left in these lands. Only echoes. Only ghosts."

Not everyone was gone. Donna remembered the wild man who had attacked the Doctor two nights before. She was just about to mention him to ser Titanis when on the far horizon the outlines of a small town came in sight. The companions were in desperate need of provisions. Most of their stuff had disappeared with the ridingbirds after they fled into the woods, while ser Titanis and Gellard have left theirs on the bottom of the swamp.

The Doctor stopped and turned to the Master. "What do you think?"

"We've half a loaf of bread left for the five of us." The other Timelord shrugged. "So either we go hungry tonight or we go down into that village and see what we can scavenge to fill up on supplies."

The Doctor answered him with a look of hesitation.

"Oh come on." The Master teased. "You're not scared of these invisible bogeymen and salt phantoms, are you? Are you the same man who stood alone against the formidable Dalek army? The man who is known as the destroyer of Gallifrey?" He added tauntingly before he marched up to the front of the company to lead the way.

They reached the town in the late afternoon. Traveling with the Doctor, Donna had seen abandoned and ruined places before. On the icy planet of the Oods, the Ood's cities they had encountered had been little more than frozen ruins, half buried by huge mounts of snow. She had been inside the Great Library, an entire planet with continents filled with books, but with no one left to read them. The feeling of goose bumps crawling over her skin when they entered the town was a familiar one, but was nonetheless alarming. Everywhere she looked, there were traces of daily human activity. Loafs of what seemed to be freshly baked bread were left to cool on the windowsill of a bakery. A wagon filled with hay, stood unattended in the middle of the street. Someone has dropped a basket full of red fruit on the ground and when they passed by a blacksmith, she noticed that the fire was _still_ burning in the forge.

"I thought you said these towns were all abandoned." Donna gazed at ser Titanis. She touched a half-shaped metal rod that lay on top of the anvil. "It's still warm." She muttered with a puzzled look.

"It's like everybody has just fled out of town, and have left everything behind in their haste." Gellard noted uneasily.

"That's impossible. No one lives beyond the Midwall. The last of the Saltmen to leave the North went decades ago." Ser Titanis muttered.

"But ser, look at this place." Gellard picked up the fruit from the ground. "These appleplums are still fresh. There must be farmers around who picked these from the trees, and someone must have baked those breads."

"Someone did. Only not recently."

All except for the Master turned their heads to the Doctor in surprise.

"It's a kind of time quarantine. Like a separation from the timeline, enforced by distortions in the space-time continuum, which is created by accelerating the particles within the forcefield to near lightspeed. I think the term in Earth physics should be time dilation." The Doctor tried to explain to the others in his usual overly enthusiastic way. "Einstein was the first to find out about it. Donna, did I ever tell you that that guy is a true genius?"

"Sorry, but I lost you right after _quarantine_." Donna replied.

"Quarantine?" The Doctor huffed with clear disappointment. "Well that's quite early. Blimey…" He scratched the back of his neck. "Didn't they teach you these basic physics stuff in school?"

"Oh excuse me my Lord Snob, but not everyone went to private school." Donna snapped back.

"Sorry Doctor, but were you trying to explain something here?" Ser Titanis noted, still puzzled. "I thought you were speaking in some kind of mystical tongue."

"Oh tisk tisk." The Master muttered, shaking his head in dismay. "Doctor, you've obviously traveled alone with me for far too long. Not everyone is your intellectual peer, remember? You have your humanoid pets to take care of now. Better dumb down your language or their heads might explode. Here, let me try." He cleared his throat and turned to Donna. "It's a big time BUBBLE." He said loudly to her, accentuating every word as if speaking to a six year old and drawing out a circle in the air. "Time passes slower inside than it does outside. _Understood_?"

"Leave her alone, she is not stupid." The Doctor argued.

"Yeah. What do you think I am, some kind of simpleton?" Donna muttered, but secretly feeling relieved that she finally got an idea what they have walked into.

"A time bubble?" Gellard repeated, still confused.

"This entire town is placed outside time. That's why the fire is still burning in the smithy and the bread is still warm. Time has been forced to a stand still in this place." The Doctor explained, as he looked around, a scowl appeared on his face.

"But…how?" Donna asked. "Just assuming that it wasn't some kind of wacky accident. How could this happen?"

"There was only one race in the entire universe capable of meddling with time at such a scale." A worried look flashed in the Doctor's eyes. "My race of people. Which means that the Timelords have been here."

"The Timelords? But…you're a Timelord." Donna noted, not without bafflement.

"They are not _all_ like me." The Doctor replied, turning his eyes away from her almost shamefully. "I know what you're thinking, but we Timelords are not saints. We were an ancient race, the oldest in the universe, we should have been as wise as we were powerful. But at the end of a great conflict against the Dalek Empire, in the very last of the Timewars, the horrors of war had hardened and corrupted them and had replaced wisdom with madness. The Timelords have become so desperate that they would sacrifice anything and anyone, just to win the war." He paused, swallowing hard. "So many mistakes have been made." He whispered mournfully. "So many lives have been destroyed. You have no idea, how much evil has been done, just to ensure Gallifrey's survival."

"Are you telling me that the Timelords did this?" Donna said, putting one and one together. "All those horrible stories about the Dark riders from the south, those were _your_ people?"

"They were Rassilon's men." The Master stared back at the Doctor, his eyes unblinking.

Donna felt her stomach turn. "What happened to the villagers?"

The Doctor just looked up grievously at her.

"Oh why do we keep gibbering about the past when we have the present to worry about?" The Master interrupted, he snatched the appleplum off Gellard's hand and took a bite. "We're here for provisions! So let's go find some. I for one don't want to be stuck in this place when it gets dark." Without taking further notice of the others, he spun around and disappeared inside one of the abandoned dwellings next to the bakery.

"What does he mean? What happens after sunset?" Gellard asked nervously, looking at the Doctor for answers.

"This place is sealed away from normal time, which means nothing that belongs here gets out. Ever." The Doctor's face turned serious. "We need to leave."

4.

The human companions soon discovered what had happened to the missing villagers when they left the town. In a walled in orchard not far away from the last farmhouse of the small community, they found them, hanging from the thickest tree branches like a macabre crop of fruit. Men, women, and children. Houseflies were swarming over them, forming a black shroud that took to the air when the Doctor's company approached.

Donna had already seen some pretty horrible things in her life. Traveling with the Doctor had allowed her to steal a glimpse of the universe, showing her not only the divine, but also the truly ugly, but what she now witnessed left her completely speechless. This was beyond the horrors of the carnivorous shadows in Great Library, or the heart-wrenching fate of the captive Oods. This…was monstrous.

"What dark and soulless creature has done this?" Ser Titanis whispered. "An entire village. Not even the little ones are spared." Fuel by rage and an overwhelming sense of injustice, the Saltman commander of the Midwall seized his sword, his eyes burning for retribution. "Come out you cowards!" He bellowed. "Come fight me, man to man!"

"Put back your sword ser Titanis! There is no need for it." The Doctor told him.

"But they have butchered my people! The lives of the innocent which I have sworn to defend."

"They are no longer here. Those who are responsible have not been here for the last 100 years. These people have been dead ever since the dark riders went through this town."

"But…that cannot be true…look at them…their flesh is still on their bones."

"Listen to me. Time does not flow normally in here. Instead of streaming like a river, it trickles down slowly, like water of melting ice." The Doctor explained. "The lives of these people are stagnant. They are frozen in time."

Donna stared at the victims. Their faces were distorted in agony, capturing their final struggle. Their eyes were open, drawn up to heaven. Maggots wriggled out of their eye corners and fell like fat teardrops down their hollow cheeks.

A cold chill went pass her, and it made her turn. That was when she saw the Master. For a moment she thought that the hideous scene in the orchard did not affect him. His dark eyes were cast to the distance, beyond the fruit trees with their horrific crop, his gaze neither denying nor acknowledging the existence of the blue-green corpses. But then she realized that he was staring at an old oaktree that stood further away from the others. It was the only tree in the entire field that did not have any dead people in it, but its bark was black as if scorched by fire and there was not a single leaf left on its twisted branches.

"What? What is it? What do you see?" She recognized that look on his face. She had seen it before. In the river, after he had pulled her out of the ice-cold stream. It was that same frozen expression of terror.

The Master broke off his gaze. "We should be going." He answered abruptly, and turned away from her.

"But… we can't just let these people hang here." Donna protested.

"Surely not! We must take them down and give them a proper burial so their souls may rest in the black soil of the salted earth." Ser Titanis said determinedly, and he reached for his dagger. "Come on boy, help me up there." He was about to climb on the back of his page to reach out and cut down one of the victims when the Doctor stopped him.

"No ser Titanis." He warned. "We must leave them be."

"And let the wild birds feast on them?" Ser Titanis objected. "Surely even your merciless race knows that one should respect the dead?"

"Doctor, why can't we bury them?" Donna asked.

The Doctor had no time to explain. "Look, the Master is right. We should be going. Quickly, before the sun goes down." He almost literally pulled his companions away from the trees, out of the orchard and back on to the main road.

"The Master is _right_?" Donna blurted. "Oh _now_ it's getting really creepy. You never say he's right. And why do we need to hurry? Hurry to go where?" She then caught the Master glimpsing back over his shoulder as they hurried along. Her stomach suddenly turned into a tight knot. It was one thing to see the Doctor nervous, but the Master? She had never seen that barmy sociopath so unnerved before. Being absolutely _frightening_ because he was busying himself with cutting up a room full of violent French monks with a blunt potato peeler, yes, but him being _frightened_?

"Can you _please_ tell me what is going on here?" Donna asked, rushing after the Doctor.

"Yes I can." He told her, leading the group down the dirt road in a quick pace. "And as soon as we get out of here, I will."

5.

It was near nightfall when they finally stopped and made camp for the night. By that time, Donna was exhausted. They've been running up a steep hill for almost a full hour and she could hardly feel her legs anymore. Thankfully, Gellard and ser Titanis were made of stronger stuff and volunteered to gather the firewood. A quick whizz with the Doctor's sonic and they could all sit down and relax their aching muscles.

"So." She said, when she huddled up closer the comfortable fire. "You are going to explain a few things to us?"

The Doctor stopped poking a stick in the flames and gazed up at her with a distracted look on his face.

"The village. Dead people in the trees. Time bubble." Donna reminded him crankily.

"Oh that." Alertness returned to his eyes. "I was trying to get you out before the diminished solar energies from the Mourning star would slow down time inside the zone to a near stand still. That would allow further corrosion of the time stream and make greater rifts appear, exposing the whole quarantine area to the dangers of inter-dimensional space."

Ser Titanis and Gellard, and even Donna were looking at the Doctor as if he had just grown an extra head.

"Ah, sorry." The Doctor racked his brain for a better way to explain it to them. "Let's try again. The time bubble is a weak-point in time because it runs so incredibly slow. It is highly susceptible to tearing and when that happens, that rift in the time vortex will allow what ever lives in between the dimensions to enter the quarantine zone."

"And I guess that's a bad thing?" Donna noted. "Why do I even bother to ask? With you it's always a bad thing. What exactly lives between dimensions? Inter-dimensional space rats?"

"They're called shadow reapers." The Master explained, finally breaking his silence. "Whenever time is wounded, these creatures appear. They come to clean and to disinfect the mess."

"What do you mean by that?" Donna asked.

"Let's just say they we and they really shouldn't mix." The Master replied, giving her a sinister grin. "Luckily for us they are sealed inside the time bubble, or this entire land shall turn red."

A sudden cry cut through the silence and made all of them jump in fright.

"What was that!" Ser Titanis spat. His hand tightened on the hilt of his sheathed sword. "It came from the village."

"There are still people alive in there." Gellard whispered.

"They are not alive. Neither are they dead." The Doctor said solemnly. "Time is all muddled up within that place. There is no rational sequence of events. No cause and effect. To those who are trapped inside, this means that they can be alive after they have been murdered, and dead while they are still alive."

"If that's true, than those poor souls are cursed, and condemned to the deepest pits of hell." Ser Titanis said in utter horror.

The Doctor stared into the fire. The shrill cries that continued to echo through the valley came like a punishment to his already burdened conscience. "I am sorry, but there's nothing we can do to help them."

"Why not?" Gellard pushed on. "You said you were a Timelord, and that cursed prison is a creation of your tribe. Why can't you just undo this great evil?"

"Because their fate is a fixed point in time. Am I right Doctor?" Donna said, recognizing the look of desperation on the Doctor's face that she had seen once before, in the glow of the fires of Pompeii. "He can't change it. If he could he would have done something already, but he just…he can't."

The Doctor looked gratefully at her. "If we enter the zone, we will make a breach in the barrier and the shadow creatures will be unleashed into our universe. No one, nothing in the whole of creation, will be safe."

"And what should we do? Just sit here and listen to their dying screams and let those nightmare monsters slaughters them?" Ser Titanis spat.

Above the doomed the town, strange lights appeared in the sky, the clouds split open and a horde of monstrous men sized bats soared down to the orchard and dived between the trees. Terrifying howls came from the cursed dead as they were picked from the branches one by one and ripped apart by the murderous creatures.

"I can't take this anymore!" Gellard burst out, shaking his head fervently. "We have to do something!"

"Then I suggest you cover your ears." The Master told him. "Because let me tell you, this is going to go on the whole night."

Gellard had enough of this torment. Frustrated, he jumped up and walked over to the Master. For a moment it looked like he was going to punch him in the face, but then his rage subsided and he kicked the cinders into the fire instead before turned and left the camp.

"Oh what the hell is wrong with you?" Donna snapped at the Master. "Can't you see the poor kid is terrified?"

"And that is my concern because…?" The Master replied with a smug grin on his face. He fished Gellard's ration of turnips out of the campfire and removed the blackened peel before stuffing it in his mouth.

"I can totally understand that some of you Timelords can be complete selfish gits, present company included." Donna told the Doctor as she gave the Master a nasty look. "But what I can't understand is why they cursed this entire town with a hole into another hell dimension. Was killing these poor people not enough?"

"The Timelords uses this weak spot to summon their military forces. This town was selected as a regroup station. What happened to the people was just collateral damage to them."

"But you guys have your Tardis-ses-zes." Unsure what the plural for Tardis was supposed to be. "You have your great time machines. You should be able to hop over to any planet you like without punching a demon-infested hole into the universe."

"You don't understand." The Doctor said grimly. "The army that was assembled here was not an army that should have existed in the first place."

Donna looked puzzled. "Sorry, come again?"

The Doctor was reluctant to go on, He was about to reveal the darkest secrets of the Timelords to his companions that he himself had tried so very hard to forget.

"Tell us Doctor." Ser Titanis urged. His grey eyes scrutinized him deeply. "I for one need to know why this horrible fate has befallen us. Why did your people, who you claim are the wisest and oldest race in the universe, commit such atrocities against mine?"

The Doctor looked over at the Master, who just sat there silently waiting for him to continue, his face devoid of any emotions.

"Very well then. I will tell you." The Doctor sighed, searching for strength. "At the very end of the time war it was becoming more and more evident to the Timelord high council that we were loosing the battle. By that time, millions of lives have already been lost. The mighty Timelord army and its alliance of seven enlightened races were completely almost annihilated. The once mighty military force was reduced to a few desperate legions of mutilated soldiers. Living and un-living, they were send back in time again and again to suffer endless deaths in a desperate attempt to change the outcome of the war. It was in that darkest hour of our existence when the Daleks threatened to destroy Gallifrey with their mutated army of monsters called the Skaro Degradations, and that the Horde of Travesties was battling at our gates, that the Timelord council decided to resurrect the Nightmare Child."

The Master glimpsed at the Doctor, only for half a second or so, before he quickly returned his gaze to the flames. No-one, not even the Doctor noticed it, but Donna did.

"Wait a minute." Donna argued. "They sent a child to fight the Daleks?"

"Oh no. No. He was not _just_ a child. A resurrected Timelord. The first one who was selected to be brought back from the grave."

"You mean like a zombie or a ghost?"

"Worse. It was said that the council had brought back a child with no soul. A creature that only knew bloodlust and warfare, and had no knowledge of empathy or remorse. He was a monster, and therefore the perfect weapon against the Skaro's forces. At that point, the excess manipulation of time has led to the whole of the conflict to be time-locked. Starved from fresh recruits in our own timeline, the high counsel devised the abdominal plan to abduct warriors from other dimensions to fight their war. They created a new, deadly army. An army that should not have existed, consisting of millions of soldiers who should have never lived. By corrupting the Eye of Harmony they ripped holes in the fabric of reality to let them through, and they crowned the Nightmare Child king of this demon Army of Meanwhiles and Never-Weres."

The Doctor paused. A deep sense of loss washed over him. After all these years of living, of running away and hiding from the past, the memory of the final days of his doomed race was still haunting him. Donna took his hand and gave a light squeeze. "Go on."

"I don't know what happened next." The Doctor admitted with guilt in his voice. "I wasn't there at the time, because…because I've fled. But it was said that the Nightmare Child defeated the Hordes of Skaro in a battle that turned the water in all the great rivers of Gallifrey into blood. The Daleks retreated, but for this war to end, the Timelords knew that they needed an even greater weapon, something so dangerous and powerful that they themselves feared to unleash into this world. It was hidden in the Hydra constellation, in the eye of the sky serpent, in the solar system of the Mourning star. On one of its rock-based planet named Saltsea, lay buried the deepest, darkest secret from the time of the creation of the Timelords. The counsel sent out the Nightmare Child and his demon army to collect it."

"The Dark Lord and his riders who slaughtered the poor villagers." Donna gasped, finally getting the entire picture now. "They were sent here by the Timelords to get to the tomb of Dagonmourn."

The Doctor gazed into the fire, his eyes shimmering with great remorse. "Ser Titanis, you and your people have no idea how truly remarkable, and how important you are. The Saltmen were not created by ancient Gods. They were created by the Timelords. You see, the wisest of my ancestors have long foreseen the fall of their own kind and have cloned your race to populate this particular place and time. They have instilled in your DNA the very traits of honor and servitude to make you the perfect guardians of Dagonmourn. Without you, the destructive power that lay dormant beneath the stones of the Hill of Sorrow would have easily fallen into the wrong hands. It is because of you and your kind's continues sacrifice that this universe had been safe for so long."

"But…then we have failed." Ser Titanis said, realizing what this meant. "The castle of Dagonmourn was sacked by the dark Lord and his riders centuries ago."

"That's only what your legend tells you. But the Nightmare Child never returned to the Cruciform. He and his army were lost in this quest, and vanished from Timelord history. The high council never got their hands on their ultimate weapon, forcing them to take yet another desperate measure. They brought back our creator, a powerful Timelord named Rassilon, and in the final hours of madness, they followed their unscrupulous leader to prepare for the Ultimate Sanction in which the whole of creation was to be sacrificed for the destruction of the Daleks and the preservation of the Timelord race." The Doctor paused, an expression of overwhelming grief crossed his face. "I stopped them. I stopped them all, destroying all Timelords and all Daleks alike. Because I had to…" He shut his eyes. He could still see it, the flames that consumed Gallifrey and turned everything he loved into ashes. The apocalyptic inferno in the sky as the imperial Dalek fleet of millions was destroyed. "After that, for a long time, I thought that was it. That was the end…I was the only Timelord left in existence."

"But you're not the last." Donna told him. "The Master is still around."

The Doctor's expression darkened. "He is not the only one who came back from the Timewar."

"You mean…Rassilon came back as well."

The Doctor nodded. "He's not yet corporal, but his presence is here. I can feel it. The Watcher's white point star has brought us to Saltsea for a reason."

"Doctor, what exactly is buried there underneath Dagonmourn?" Ser Titanis asked. "What is the great Timelord doomsday device?"

"No one knows. Only the ancients knew what was hidden there, and they took that secret with them to their graves. All we had left were stories, passed on through generations, told by the Timelord elders at bedtime to scare the children of Gallifrey into being good. And after the Timelords were gone, the stories themselves became myths and legends, told by the surviving races to their own children to live on while the true meaning became lost."

That night, after all of them had turned to bed, Donna could not catch her sleep, but it was not the icy screams of the undead villagers that kept her awake.

For no matter how hard she tried, she could not get the stories of Ser Titanis out of her head…nor could she forget the vivid look in the Master's eyes when the Doctor had mentioned the Nightmare Child.

6.

It was long after midnight when Donna's bladder urged her to leave the warmth of her makeshift moss and straw bed. She stumbled into the bushes behind the clearing, making sure not to wake the Doctor and the others. After she had done her business, and was about to go back to the campsite, she suddenly heard a twig snap on the forest floor behind her. Spooked by the sound, she wheeled around. Her eyes sought blindly in the darkness.

"Who was that?" She called out with her heart beating in her throat.

A shadow appeared from behind the trees and stepped into the moonlight. She let out a sigh of relief when she realized that it was him.

"Gosh! You really freaked me out. I thought it was one of those bat-creatures coming for me."

"That's a moronic thought." The Master noted. "The Doctor did explain to you that the shadow creatures can't get out, unless you damage the shield by entering the area first. The village is miles away."

"Well thank you for telling me that." She realized that she was getting agitated with him within less than 2 seconds. Must be a new record. "What the heck are you doing here?"

"Sleep eludes me." The Master explained, gazing up absentmindedly at the star lit sky through a gap in the forest canopy. "I wanted to be left alone to think."

"I couldn't sleep either." She admitted to him. "I mean, who can right? In a horrible place like this."

"Well…I could point out ser Titanis to prove you wrong. He's currently snoring like a grunting starwhale in mating season. I swear if I've stayed a moment longer my eardrums would have split." The joke came with a not too unfriendly smile. It took her by surprise. He had never been even remotely nice to her. Not since he saved her from her public execution in 18th century France. In hindsight, even that was more of an involuntary act than a thoroughly thought through good deed.

"Something on your mind?" The Master noted, lifting an eyebrow at her.

"Uhm yes." Donna replied, quickly regaining her wits. There were indeed a few things that she was left wondering about. If she was lucky enough tonight to get a friendly smile out of him, maybe this was the right time to ask some questions. Who knows, she might even get an honest answer back. "I was wondering about what happened today. Back in the orchard, you seemed a little distracted."

"You would rather have me gawking at that macabre graveyard display, like you lot?" He grinned.

"No. No, that's not what I meant." She sputtered. What _did_ she exactly want to say? She was never this nervous when she was talking to the Doctor, but with him…It was like the guy was constantly trying to dissect her with his eyes. "There was this oak tree in the back of the garden. I know you saw something there. Something that you've seen before, when you dragged me out of that icy river." She locked her gaze on him. The dark of his pupils reflected the moonlight. "What was it that you saw?" She asked, pushing the question out in one breath.

"Nothing." His voice reverted back to his usual cold hostility towards her. "Nothing that concerns you."

"You know I didn't slip and fell. I was pulled down. There was something in that river that grabbed hold of my ankle and tried to drown me. You saw it happen." She paused. "Why didn't you tell the Doctor?"

"I said it was nothing!" The Master said stubbornly.

"I saw you cut it with your sword! There was blood on the blade."

The Master clenched his jaw and swallowed hard, his cold eyes blazing.

"Why?" Donna pushed on, realizing that she was really on to something. "Why don't you want the Doctor to know? What are you hiding from him?"

A dark shadow passed over the Master's face as if the sun was suddenly blocked out by storm clouds. "The Doctor!" He shouted. "Why does everybody always have to drag the Doctor into my affaires?" A mad look appeared in his eyes that made Donna back away from him quickly. "He is NOT the center of this universe and he does NOT play God over my existence!"

"I've never said that he did." Donna tried, frightened by his mad outburst. "Honestly…He's only trying to help."

"Oh Donna Noble. I know your kind. I've met one of those human female companion types who was so much like you before. The curious and stubborn Martha Jones, the companion who dared to defy the wrath of a Timelord for the sake of saving the Doctor." He paused for a heartbeat. "Do you know what I did to her…_and_ her family?" His voice lowered to a whisper and a mad smile slithered across his lips. "Did the Doctor ever tell you what I did? That one year, when he was my prisoner? Did he mention what kind of _horrors_ he had to suffer by my hands?"

Donna shook her head. "What are you talking about? You would never….w-would you?"

"Ha! I knew it! I knew you wouldn't believe me." He giggled insanely. "Look at me. Who will? I am a lion without claws! The Doctor brought me back and turned me into his bloody lapdog!" The smile vanished from his face.

"But believe me…the past…every blood-drenched memory, every rotten part of my cursed existence, it is all still in here…" He stabbed at his temples with his fingers, then reached out to her like as fast as a viper shooting from underneath a stone.

"Come here…I said _come here_!" Donna shrieked and flinched away but the Master grabbed her and pulled her to his chest. "_Stop struggling!_" he barked at her."_Let me show you_!"

His hands touched her temples and she gasped. Her body froze when he forced his memories into her, flooding her mind with the events of the year that never was.

_Harold Saxon, the decimation of the human population by the Toclefanes, followed by the enslavement of humankind. The Doctor, her wonderful crazy Doctor, reduced to pitiful old shell of his former self and imprisoned by the mad Master, to be degraded and tortured to satisfy his sadistic need for revenge. Brave, brave Martha, being hunted down like a wild animal across the continents by his men, while her family was imprisoned and tormented. _

"Oh." Donna cried. Tears started to flow down her cheeks unnoticed. "Oh no!" She tried to push him away, but remained locked in his iron grip. "NO!"

The Master laughed. "That's right. Scream! Now you finally get to see me for what I am. Don't you find that refreshing?"

"No! Please!" She begged. Her legs were getting weak and she was sinking through her knees. "Enough…"

"You want me to stop so soon? Didn't you just _beg_ me to tell you what I saw in that orchard? Don't you want to know what's been haunting me ever since we set foot on this stinking hell hole of a planet?" His fingers dug deeper into her skull. "You wanted to see, now look! Look Donna Noble! Open your mind's eyes and drink deep from this dark poisonous pit that is _my soul_!"

She looked. She had no other option, and what she saw terrified her.

She was standing till up to her waist in the forest stream, the cold water turning her limbs to branches of ice. A white form floated near her and broke the surface. It was a woman dressed in white. Her skin was blue and almost translucent, revealing the web of veins that ran beneath it. Blood flowed down her dress from a horrific gash that ran across her stomach that spilled out her pink insides. She looked at Donna, her once beautiful eyes looked menacing and soulless.

_Why did you do it? _She wailed without moving her fleshless lips._ Look what you've done to me! Why? Why did you take my poor boys from me? WHY?_

Fat worms started to crawl out of her rotting flesh. They dropped into the water and where they broke the surface, the water turned into blood. Then her jaw fell open and a horde of flies came swarming out of her mouth.

Donna screamed in horror and covered her face as the black cloud of pests covered the white lady's body and devoured her.

Then the nightmare vision shifted to the orchard, where she reluctantly approached the oaktree in the middle of the garden. There, nested in the crown that bore the blackened scars of a fierce fire, were the bodies of two children. Every bone in their limbs had been smashed and the arms and legs were cruelly woven between the branches of the tree. The coarse ropes that had strangled them were still dangling around their broken necks. In a final act of brutality, their eyes had been gouged out and replaced with round white pebbles.

Donna was gaping at the horrific sight when she suddenly felt a tug on her sleeve. She looked down and found one of the dead boys standing beside her. One of the pebbles had fallen out, leaving a gaping hole in his face where she could see the maggots wriggling inside his brain.

_It's so cold up there. _The boy told her. _The birds can hardly pick the flesh from our bones. We're so stiff and frozen. Do you know how it feels to have your legs and arms smashed while you're still alive? I screamed for mercy, but no one heard me. Not you. Not your men. Not even the birds. _A grin of pure hatred spread over the boy's face.

_Soon it will be your turn. You will scream and plead like I once did. No one will hear you though. Not even him, not even the Doctor. You shall be as cold and alone as I am now, and the worms will eat holes inside your brain._

"Doctor!" Donna screamed before the child disappeared in front of her eyes. "Doctor!" She wheeled around and saw that the entire tree was set ablaze. Hungry flames licked up against the blackened bark of the roots and the trunk, quickly making their way up to the crown, where they started on the two boys. Now they were alive again, and their eyes turned white with horror as they tried to wriggle their broken limps out of the tangle of branches.

"Oh no. No!" Donna raced forward, but the flames suddenly increased and the blaze turned into an inferno. She pulled her hair in desperation. "No! NO! Someone! Stop this! Doctor! Doctor Help! Please!" Shielding her eyes from the intense heat, she watched in horror how the two little boys, their bodies contorted in agony, were burnt alive, the flames boiling and searing the flesh from their bones.

It was then that she finally realized that she had been calling out to the wrong man. "Master." She spoke. "Master. Stop this. I don't…I don't want this anymore. I don't want to know…" She swallowed hard, and continued more firmly. "This is your hell. Not mine. Get me out me of this. Get me out now!"

The flames reached out to the top the branches, turning the entire tree into a burning cloud of fire. It consumed everything nearby in a blinding white light.

Donna breathed in the frosty air as she slowly lifted her hands from her eyes. She was back in the moonlight lit darkness of the forest. The Master was staring at her, his expression grim. His eyes were filled with grief and remorse, but she could not even feel the slightest touch of sympathy for him. After all he had shown her, she wasn't even sure she was ever capable to stop hating him.

"You are the Dark lord of the Ser Titanis legends." She whispered. "You are responsible for what had happened to the Saltmen, for the murder of lord Dagonmourn, his wife, and his children. She broke down, and clasped a hand over her mouth, shivering. "Oh those poor kids…"

"I _was_ the Dark lord. I am no longer." The Master replied. "Oh how I wish they would stop haunting me, these shadows of the past, they do not know my intentions, still they exert themselves in every way to drive me _insane_! I cannot think! I cannot sleep! They won't leave me alone, not even for one second!"

"And they shouldn't! What you did was unforgivable! It was monstrous! Have you no bloody conscience?"

The Master seemed puzzled by her harsh response. "I showed you everything you wanted to know and still you judge me... But…why does that still surprise me?" He slapped his forehead in self-contempt. "Stupid, stupid me! It always goes this way. It always ends this like this."

"All right, tell me then mister "Big Misunderstanding" what are your intensions? And don't give me any more of that crazy talk. I am not buying into that load of bullocks anymore!"

"You think this is all an act?" The Master sneered, gazing at her with contempt.

"Oh no, I do believe that you're 100% bat crap crazy, but I just don't longer care. All I want to know is that ser Titanis and Gellard and the others are safe. That the Doctor is safe and not falling in some kind of trap set out by someone he thought he could trust because he was his frien -" She broke off the sentence. "You really are up to something, aren't you?" We are not here because that star led us here. It's because you wanted us to be here…"

"Very clever Ginger." The Master said with a tired smile and clapped his hands. "Never thought you had it in you, but there you are, figuring it out all by yourself. Your transformation from an ugly ignorant human maggot to a worthy butterfly companion must be complete, although from the surface it's very hard to see. Nonetheless, this deserves a round of applause."

"Why do you do this to him?" Donna asked, knowing that this would break the Doctor's heart. "He really thought that you have changed."

"You don't know much about us, do you? I have betrayed his trust before. The good Doctor never learns." The forced smile vanished from his face, and his mood darkened, turning almost remorseful. "You probably won't believe me, but this is not cruelty, nor is it vindictiveness. This is kindness. This is me, being kind to him." He swallowed hard and looked away for a moment. "Tell him that I am sorry, will you? At least now he will have you to look after I am gone. When he left me, I had no-one." His dark eyes turned hard as he gazed over Donna shoulder. "And as for our lost friends from the Midwall…I don't think that there is any need to look for them any further."

By the time she had wheeled around and saw the bodies of Jenkin and Olaf swinging from the branches of the tree behind her, the Master had already vanished into the woods.

_TBC_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**1.**

The Doctor and his companions buried the two men at the foot of the hill near the village. When the sun finally touched the horizon and brought an end to this long and horrible night, Donna sat down on a rock near the freshly dug graves. She didn't know what got into her, but something tense and fragile snapped inside her and she just broke down in tears.

The Doctor wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and started cradling her softly.

"I can't take this anymore. All this death…when does it end?" She hiccupped, weeping her eyes dry in his shirt. "And the Master. He's just…gone."

"We will hunt him down." Ser Titanis swore, his eyes starving for retribution. "I pledge on my father's name that their deaths shall be retaliated."

"She didn't say that it was him." The Doctor replied sternly.

"Neither did the lady deny it." Ser Titanis said accusingly. "There was no-one else in the woods other than her and your traitorous companion. It must be the Master who has butchered my unfortunate men. "

"Oh come on, if that's all you're gonna need to draw your conclusions, you might as well say that Donna killed them. Not that I am accusing you of murder or anything." The Doctor added quickly after he noticed the look Donna was giving him. "Just trying to make a point here."

"The difference between him and lady Noble is that she is not the bloodthirsty reincarnation of the Scourge of the Northern lands." Ser Titanis objected. "Stop trying to protect your murderous kin Doctor. That wolf in sheep's clothing is not worth redeeming, nor does he deserve your misplaced compassion."

"I said I didn't see him kill those boys." Donna said, backing the Doctor up. "And…I don't think he did. He just showed me a whole bunch of horrible stuff, that's all. My head is all jumbled up."

"If he did not murder my brothers in arms than who did?" Gellard spat.

"Look, I know what you think, but he is not the same man who brought down your civilization. Yes the Master was once the Dark lord, but that was lifetimes ago. He's a different man now." The Doctor said it with such conviction that Donna could no longer hold her tongue.

"Doctor…I know this is hard, but…he did betray you." She said softly. "He used the star to lure us here. He told me so himself. He has fooled us all."

"No he didn't." The Doctor lifted his eyebrows at her. "Well maybe he fooled you, but not me. Still, don't feel embarrassed about it, happens to a lot of people."

"What?" Donna's mouth dropped open. "You knew?"

"Yep. Ever since we arrived at Saltsea. Well, a little bit earlier perhaps, maybe since we left your wedding. I had an inkling, a little hunch, but I needed more time to fill in the details. "

Donna couldn't believe this. "Are you seriously telling me that all this time you knew that this was a bloody trap?" She fumed. She looked like she was about to slap him, and the Doctor hurriedly took a few steps back. "Hold on there. Not so quick. It's true that I knew that the Master was the Nightmare Child before we came here, but I didn't put one and one together till I saw that the white point star was pointing out the Hydra Galaxy to us."

"But if you knew, why didn't you prevent him from coming here in the first place?" Donna asked.

"You don't know him like I do. We've been friends and enemies for centuries. If you stay close enough to a madman, you get to know how his mind works. Ever since the Master became aware of Rassilon's existence he was out on revenge. I knew he was up to something. Something big, but I needed time to find out exactly what it was. I finally realized that the Master wanted to come back to Saltsea to retrieve what he has failed to collect, all those lifetimes ago. He's after the Dagontomb. He believes that getting his hands on whatever power that lies dormant there is the only way to stop Rassilon."

"Oh you got to be kidding me…" The haunting visions of the two dead lordlings in the tree suddenly returned to her. "Doctor, please tell me that you're not going to let him get to Dagonmourn to dig that doomsday thing up."

"I know what the world will look like if he succeeds." The Doctor told her gravely. "And that's exactly the reason why I am going to stop him." His eyes turned hard with determination. He started packing and tossed his backpack over his shoulder before he shook ser Titanis's and Gellard's hands.

"Ser Titanis, young master Gellard, it's been an honor to travel with the legendary men of the Midwall, but your quest to find your comrades has ended. You two should go back, Donna and I will continue north. With a bit of luck we will find my mad companion before his mindless tactics brings down upon us the end of the universe."

"But…surely you will need help." Ser Titanis objected.

"Not with Donna around." The Doctor beamed a proud smile at her. "Don't you worry. It's not like the Master has never been evil before. Au contraire, it's just going to be like old times. Ha! Piece of cake!" He joked with a silly grin, but behind the smile, he had a hard time to keep up the pretence of cheerfulness.

Ser Titanis tightened his grip on the Doctor hand. "If your battle is with what lies beneath the Dagontomb and what threatens us all, than I have little choice but to bend the rules and aid you in your quest."

"Are you sure?" The Doctor asked, somewhat surprised. "It will be dangerous."

"Duty before my own life." Ser Titanis replied, drawing his sword. "You'll have my sword Doctor."

"And mine." Gellard added determinedly.

"Yes, well, for now there is very little need for something this sharp and pointy, so I would prefer you keep them out of my sight." The Doctor said strictly, but he couldn't hide a smile. "Blimey, if I get a penny every time some idiot draws a sword around here, I'll have enough money to buy myself a carousel."

"What do you want with a carousel?" Donna muttered as she followed the Doctor's example and started packing up their stuff.

"What do you mean?" The Doctor replied innocently. "I like carousels, particularly the early 19th century ones. They have real craftsmanship, all those brightly colored lights and wooden horses galloping up and down. I could ride those for ages." He stopped rambling and clapped in his hands, getting back to serious matters. "All right then. Now that everyone has made up their minds, let's get to Dagonmourn before the Master gets there first."

**2.**

"Curses!"

With the last of his strength, the Master dragged himself onto drier land, and continued to crawl on his stomach over the moss covered ground till his legs were finally free from the bog that clung to him like thick glue. Exhausted, he turned on his back and stared up at the grey sky while he struggled to regain his breath.

"Curses." He repeated. "I curse you Doctor." He breathed. "You and that red head know-it all."

After a short rest, he scrambled back on his feet and brushed the mud from his trousers and shoes. The lands that surrounded Dagonmourn were damp and lifeless, with a scattering of shallow pools that were still and deep. One wrong step, and the land here would swallow you whole. Yet, he could already see the walls of the ancient castle loom on top of the foggy mountain in the far distance. If he hurried, he may reach the gate of the battlement by nightfall. Determined to do just that, he ignored his tiredness and struggled on.

This traitorous marchland was once the battlefield of the Battle of Dagonmourn. Countless of men had lost their lives in this place, from the soulless soldiers that had followed the Nightmare Child into battle to the brave Saltmen defending Dagonmourn. Their bodies still lay where they had fallen, unburied and unmourned, they were left to the acids in the ground to transform them into grotesque, mummified imitations of their once living selves. It was a doomed place, and it was filled with ghostly whispers.

_Shadows. They are nothing but shadows._ The Master kept reminding himself as the mournful howling became louder with every step he took in his lonely journey across the wetlands. _Don't look back. Don't acknowledge their existence, and they might just leave you in peace. _

It was not long before he came across the skeletal form of a Timelord rider still mounted on his beast. A spear was lodged in the dead man's skull, and weed covered most part of the long line of the Mauler dragon's neckbones that were long since picked bare by hungry scavengers. Even now, the scales that covered the mummified body of the dragon had kept its ghostly white sheen. Seeing this morbid display darkened the Master's already depressing mood.

"What is a life, but a brief moment of order before the darkness returns and chaos comes to reclaim us all." He muttered to himself, succumbing to a deep sense of loss in ever fiber of his being.

_Where are you going Timelord?_

The whispery voice that called out to him was that of a woman, and he did not need to look to know who it was. "Lady Gwendolyn." He murmured and wondered if it was her who had tricked him to walk into the black bogs a few moments ago. "Now that I've lost all of my other travel companions, it is good to know that you're still here by my side."

The white translucent shape of the late lady of Dagonmourn drifted in the air as if she was floating underwater, her hair swaying in invisible currents. When she spoke, her words cut like a dagger into ice. "My kin has not known peace since the salted earth has claimed our bones. We will not suffer idly the return of the Dark lord to our lands."

"You are dead my dear lady." The Master snorted. "There's nothing you can do, even if my presence here does insult you."

The green flames that shone in her eyes became wild and restless. "The way to Dagonmourn is closed. You may not pass."

The earth around him began to stir. Thin skeletal hands broke through the surface and stuck out of the dead reeds as the fallen knights of Dagonmourn began to claw their way out of their unmarked graves to respond to their lady's call. They were no more than grinning skulls wrapped in tar-black skin, but still they clutched onto their spears and swords with fighting rigor.

"You can summon as many of your men as the fiery pits of hell can spit out, but you're not going to stop me." The Master spoke defiantly, and stepped forward, getting so close to her face that he could see the icy flow of blood run through the veins underneath her translucent skin. "You are nothing but an meaningless imprint with an echo of consciousness." He hissed. "You are a footstep in the snow, fading fast from existence. You cannot harm me."

He pushed through lady Gwendolyn. Her ghostly form dispatched in a misty fog before it drifted back together and reshaped itself into her two dead sons right before his eyes.

"Where are you going tyrant?" Robert Dagonmourn asked. He and his little brother suffered from horrible burns and still wore the strangler's nooses around their necks, but the eyes in the young boy's face burnt with the same hatred and deep seeded loathing that he had witnessed on the very day when he had threatened to kill his kin.

"Leave me in peace you little brat. You're as dead as your mother." The Master sneered. Nervous and eager to move on, he tried to walk through them as well, but the two boys kept drifting backwards right in front him.

"You took me down from that tree. Do you remember? You made me and my father watch your men rape my mother, then you slit her stomach and threw her in the river." The eldest of the two boys said accusingly. "You broke every bone in my arms and legs and hoisted me up, waving my ruined limbs into the branches. I screamed and begged, but you were as deaf to my cries as the stone statues of my father's Gods."

"I was a different man then." It was becoming harder and harder for him at those maimed hateful faces. "I've suffered for my crimes." He shook his head and grimaced. "Stop blaming me for what cannot be undone. Stop haunting me!"

"You came back for a reason."

"It's not what you think. This time my intentions are good. Like I said, I've changed."

The boy looked at him with cold dead eyes. "Into what?"

He did not know how to answer him. Even with the Doctor by his side to keep his insanity at bay, he had managed to get blood on his hands. He couldn't call himself a good man in front of one of his victims.

"Into something a little less scary than a monster?" The child answered for him. "Should my brother and I be less frightened of you now?"

"Please, I beg of you, leave the past be. What is done cannot be undone. What matters now is that I need to get to Dagonmourn and reclaim what should have been mine. Only then will I have a chance to stop Rassilon. For Gallifrey's sake, don't you see? I am fighting on your side, I am actually trying to do something right this time!"

"The road to the Hill of Sorrows is shut." The two boys told him in unison.

"You cannot stop me. I know the way to the heart of the tomb. I went there before. I remember every passageway and every trap that your father had set out for me."

"We won't let you find it." Little Walder's face lit up with the cruelest of smiles. A cold wind swept up and the voices that had followed the Master all the way from the Weeping Woods to the Valley of Abundance to the Marches of Dagonmourn suddenly grew much louder.

"With every step closer to the tomb, your mind grows weaker and the whispers stronger. Can you hear them, Timelord? Can you hear what they say?"

Have they only been faint murmurs in the dark before, the voices now spoke clearly to him, their identities no longer hidden.

_My love, why have you failed me? _

The Master looked over his shoulder to see a white shape in a golden glow floating above the marches. A heart-shaped face appeared, and piercing green eyes gazed at him longingly. It was Anne.

_Why did you let Rassilon take me as his bride? Oh my love, it is so cold where I am now. So bitter, bitter cold. I am imprisoned in an endless winter. Where are you? You've promised that you will find me. You promised! _

Her face changed and the eyes became larger, and turned a deep shade of blue. A blond woman dressed in a blood-red dress stood before him and looked at him with mournful eyes. In her hand she held a glass phial with a green liquid.

"Lucy?" The Master muttered, his heart aching with grief.

_I've made my choice, for better or worse._

Before he could stop her, she drank the potion. The phial slipped between her fingers and shattered on the ground. She clutched her throat as the liquid burnt her from the inside. Then her doe-like eyes looked up and met his gaze.

_I chose you Harry. I drank the potion to save your life, and how did you repay me? You corrupted my innocence and poisoned my soul. You took my love for you and turned it into something so ugly, and dark. Oh how I've suffered in silence, watching you kill and murder, and bring an endless string of whores to our wedding-bed. Did you ever love me Harry, or was that all just a convenient lie to save your own rotten soul?_

He could not take anymore of this. The memories of his dead wife had haunted him relentlessly in his nightmares, but to see her in here in his waking hours was more than he could endure. "Make it go away." He said, his voice trembling voice. "Stop playing these cruel tricks on me."

"What's the matter? Can't you face your own conscience? Didn't you just say that you have turned over a fresh leaf and had become a better man?"

"She's not here." The Master told himself, and he shut his eyes firmly and turned away from the cruel vision. "None of this is real. It's all inside my head."

"Are you so sure?" The boys laughed. "Poor man. I promise, soon you will no longer be able to tell apart what is real and what is not."

He backed away in horror and confusion as the two dead children slowly closed in on him.

"It is very dangerous to lose your head in a place like this." Robert whispered.

"You could fall into the bog and never come out again." Little Walder grinned.

"I am not…I am not losing my mind." The Master stuttered.

"Real or not real. Mad or not mad, it doesn't matter." Robert said with a hateful grin. "We won't let you make it through the night."

He caught something sharp and shining, hidden in Robert's hand. The dead child suddenly flung himself onto him and dug his greedy little fingers into his eyes. Then he felt a red-hot slash cut through his right shoulder blade. The Master screamed in agony and grabbed blindly at the boy. _This can't be happening. He can't be real_! But the searing pain was definitely real, so was the blood that squirted down his neck.

""No one escapes their past. No one escapes judgment!"

The child's voice contorted into a terrifying scream filled with mindless hatred. His attacker tore the blade down, further opening the wound. "You've ruined my life! You've ruined everything!"

The dull pain that was caused by the pressure on his eyeballs became so great that he started to see colors. Finally he managed to grab hold of Robert's hand that felt dry and lean, and twisted it till he heard the wrist bones pop, sending the child howling like a wounded beast. Through the haze of his ruined eyes, he saw dirty strands of grey hair, dangling in front of a hideous wrinkled old face. "My wrist!" The wildman cried. "Oh you brutal beast! You broke my wrist! You will pay! Oh you will pay!"

The Master hollered when he pulled the blade out of him. Just before the wildling could plunge the warm steel back into his neck, he let himself fall and smashed his attacker into the carcass of the Mauler dragon, before turning swiftly and pulling the spear out of the rider's mummified hand. He drove it over his wounded shoulder right into his opponent's arm where the spearhead locked itself between the hard scales on the dragon's chest.

Exhausted, the Master rolled off the crying creature, who was now pinned down like a skewer of roast onto the dragon's remains.

"Stop squirming, you pathetic little worm!" The Master told him. He had great trouble speaking with the gorey mixture of blood and saliva bubbling up his throat. "Your jittering is only going to make it worse."

He wasn't too well either. The horrific gash on his shoulder had bled his back crimson and his head felt dizzy of blood-loss.

"You won't live Timelord!" The injured wildman spat. "I've opened up enough arteries to drain you dry. Finally after all these years I've taken my revenge! The scourge of Dagonmourn will soon be no more."

"I am not going to die." The Master muttered dryly.

"You cannot survive this! No one can!"

"I am cursed. Just like you are. I won't…I won't die." He swallowed hard and gazed at the wretched creature through hooded eyes. "Who are you old man? Are you one of lord Dagonmourn's bannermen? Did death forget about you?" He started to chuckle madly as he rested his bloodied back against a fallen treetrunk. "You Saltmen are a doomed race. My kind has exploited you to near annihilation, and still you won't give up on your pathetic oaths…your disastrous sense of duty." He stared at him, while his blood started to pool under him. "You can't stop me." He whispered. "I came back to claim what is rightfully mine. I will not fail this time."

"No! No!" The wildman raged. "Even if you survive, you won't be able to find your way! I made sure of that!"

The world was indeed turning dark at an alarming speed, but the Master still managed to struggle back on his feet and stagger over to the dragon's carcass. He remembered that the rotting head of the beast was harnessed with a bridle. Following the straps with his fingers, he found the reins and used his long sword to cut it free.

"What are you doing?" The wildman shouted with alarm in his voice.

"I need a pair of eyes to get me around these stinking bogpits. Not exactly being spoiled for choice, I will take yours. _Don't_ you even think of trying anything funny." He held the sharp edge of the blade under the old man's chin. "Put your hands on top of each-other over the dragon's chest. Cover the right with your left. _Do it_!"

Terrified, the old man did as he was told. As soon as he had laid down his hands the Master stepped on them with his full weight and drove the sword right through their backs.

"That's much better." The Master grinned while ignoring the cries of agony from his prisoner. "Now I can tie you up without risking another knife in my spine."

"Oh you malicious fiend!" The man lamented, staring wide-eyed at his ruined hands. "You cruel heartless monster! By the righteous Gods of old, your crimes shall not go unpunished!"

"Oh just shut up. There are no righteous Gods, only bastard Timelords like me." He bound the man's wrists so tight that it made the broken bones snap, before he pulled out the sword and the spear. Holding on to the other end of the reins, he dragged the sobbing old wreck to his feet.

"Now you will lead me through this wasteland." He coiled in the reins to keep it short and pointed the sword in the back of his prisoner. "And remember." He warned in a low voice as he shoved him forward. "Where ever you go, I'll always let you go first."

**3.**

She found herself alone in the empty chamber.

The huge doors that had granted her access to the tomb had fallen shut behind her with the damp old wood shaking the rusty hinges. From uutside came the sounds of a bloody battle, of clashing swords and the dreadful cries of men dying, but inside the vast chamber, there was only the sound of repetitive pounding. The sound of the drums, calling to her like a wounded heartbeat.

The tomb was vast with a high arched ceiling. It was dimly lit with rows of torches, and niches had been carved on both sides. In each of them stood a statue on a pedestal, a line of grim faces with mournful eyes staring into an underground world that had not been visited by the living for centuries. At the other end of the chamber, raised on a stone platform inside an arched alcove, stood a manlike figure. It wasn't a man of flesh and blood. Not anymore. It was a standing skeleton with its mouth wide open, it faced her with it arms raised and hands stretched forward.

She felt her heart pounding inside her chest as she walked towards it. The air was cold and moist, difficult to breath, as if the weight of the many tons of earth above her was pressing on her lungs. _You shouldn't be here, _a little voice at back of her mind whispered to her._ You should turn away and run. There is something wrong with this place. Something horribly, horribly wrong. _

But she couldn't decide for herself, for it wasn't her own feet that moved her closer to the skeleton, the central point of gravitation to which all things inside this room, alive or made of stone like the statues and even the walls itself, were constantly pulled. It wasn't even her own heart that rattled like a frightened rat trapped inside a metal cage. She was walking on borrowed courage. Her actions were those of someone whose motivations were much stronger than hers and who had come down into this dangerous place determined to only return with his price.

"Come on then." She whispered, or rather _he _whispered, for it was a man's voice, low, dark and strangely familiar. "I came from so far. I have sacrificed so much."

It was only when she came very close that she realized that the skeleton was not really in the chamber. It was standing behind a mirror. It was a reflection of something that did not exist in the real world.

Her heart turned to ice when he stretched out his hand towards the skeleton.

No! She screamed, sensing a great evil residing inside. "Don't touch it! "But even her inner voice was stolen from her. Trapped as she was inside a stranger's mind, she could only watch with horror how the mirror split like gelatinous fog as he reached out his hand for the skeleton.

His fingers administrated only the slightest of touch, but it was enough to make the bones fall apart and turn into dust. As the ghostly remains drifted to the ground and settled on his clothes and face, a large golden circular disk was slowly revealed to him.

The surface was smoothly polished and resembled that of the many stagnant black pools of the Dagonmourn marshlands. Cautiously, he placed his hands flat on top. Being so close, Donna could see the man's reflection. A dark haired youth with a gaunt long face, skin as pale as snow, and piercing eyes so very blue that they seemed to be made out of winter frost. They stared back at her with eyes wide and unblinking. Although he did not want to show it, she knew that very much like her, he was absolutely terrified.

The circular structure was cold at first, but soon became warmer, than hot, almost feverish. Then it moved, becoming wet and soft, like it was turning into a living thing, like a tongue, or a mouth of a hungry beast.

Why are you still here? She shouted. Run you idiot! Run while you still can!

He sucked in a deep, ragged breath and shut his eyes to calm himself. He could hear chilling voices, not coming from the men fighting outside the locked chamber, but from behind the mirror and the golden circle itself. Voices of men, women and children. All of them crying. All of them screaming. Lost souls condemned to the eternal fires of hell. The drums had devoured them.

"I won't leave." A light tremor was in his voice. "You can't scare me away. I am not like the others. All those greedy fools that you've taken, and have left screaming in the dark for mercy. They were weak. They did not deserve your brilliance. They were not worthy of your magnificence, but I am. I am worthy of you." He caressed the slab of stone almost as tenderly as he would be touching a lover. "You may try to swallow me whole, but I will make you choke on my bones."

Circular waves rippled over the disk and the surface shifted, revealing markings that had not been there before. In the dim light of the torches, she recognized that they were hand prints. Only they were not indentations, but were raised above the surface, as if some-one, or something was pushing outward from inside. The handprints belonged to his reflection, and her heart stopped when she realized that the man inside the stone mirror was smirking and he was not.

"Come on then." The reflection replied. "If you're so sure about yourself, what are you waiting for?" He began to push on the stone, and the surface of the disk and the mirror stretched outwards into a thin membrane like sheet. A chilling grin flashed over his face.

"I like you." He purred. "You look…delicious."

No! Don't! Don't do it! Donna warned, but she had no tongue or mouth to articulate her anxiety. She was still stuck inside his mind, and could do nothing, and change nothing.

He lifted his hands and placed them on the handprints. The wave of energy that immediately came rushing through was as violent as it was unstoppable, and she screamed when she felt the cuts of a thousand daggers slicing the flesh from his bones. She watched in horror how his face melted away like fat in a hellish oven, the eyes bubbling and bursting, the lips peeling away till the teeth were bare. The heat of the energy released was so intense that it shattered his jaw. His bones shifted into new positions, changing his face, altering his features. His black curly hair fell out, and was replaced by a new growth of hazel locks, only to be burnt off his scalp as soon as they had sprouted. His skin and flesh gurgled restlessly as if they were boiling and growing at the same time, caught in a horrific race of decay and renewal. He was dying. Dying, and regenerating. Faster and faster. Over and over again.

Amid the horrible agony and the terrible realization of the complete destruction of his own body, she caught his last thoughts. _I have only thirteen lives to lose. I have to let go or I will die. I can't. It's too strong…My Tardis. I need her…she is my only hope…_

"Donna!"

She broke out of her trance with a scream, and flinched away from the hand that had touched her.

"No! No!" She rambled on. "Why didn't you listen? I told you not to get near that thing! Now it's too late!"

"Donna! It's me!" The Doctor grabbed hold of her and shook her wildly. "Snap out of it!"

She gasped and a surge of icy air hit her lungs. She was no longer inside his mind, locked up in the darkness inside the tomb, but was standing at the edge of the marshlands under a cold starlit sky. The Doctor held on to her with a concerned look on his face.

"Donna, are you all right?"

She gazed back at the Doctor, shivering from head to toes. Gellard and ser Titanis watched her from a distance with a mix of alarm and worry on their faces.

Slowly, she nodded.

"You were so far gone." Gellard said softly. His face was quite pale. "You just kept ignoring everyone around you like you're not even here, and that weird noise you made…Forgive my Lady but you barely sounded human."

"I was inside his head again." Donna muttered, rubbing her eyes. "It was horrible. I thought they would stop."

"They're only echoes." The Doctor tried to explain. "A human mind works slower than that of a Timelord. Yours has not yet processed all that the Master has shown you during your last contact. You'll be experiencing some of the more powerful visions from time to time."

"I was facing a bloody skeleton! His face…I had to watch it while it was melting away…"

"The Master is not well. What you have seen could just be a distorted memory, or nightmare derived from one of his many phobias and delusions. Your mind is still in shock, but the effects won't last. It is normal to feel scared."

"Oh don't say it's normal." She muttered in frustration. "It's NOT normal to be mind raped by a terrifying psychopathic alien!" She paused, composing herself. "I am sorry. I don't know what got into me…but…I don't think it was just one of the Master's nightmares. I think that what I've seen was a real memory of him when he was younger. He was standing inside the Dagon's tomb, and was about to release whatever that was imprisoned inside that slab of stone…" She stopped and winced, cradling her head.

"You saw it? You saw the beast that was released from the tomb?" Ser Titanis came closer her. "How does it look like?"

"I- I don't know. I am not sure. It was still stuck inside the mirror, but it looked like…" She struggled to remember. The visions that only seconds ago had such a terrifying hold on her were quickly fading away, scattering into fragments. "It looked like him. It looked like the Nightmare Child…And I know him." Her eyes lit up and she looked at the Doctor with a shock of realization.

"What? What is it?"

"That face." She told him in an unsteady voice. "That man in the mirror… I couldn't quite place him at first. It was as if he was in the wrong time and the wrong place, but now - now I do remember him. I am almost sure that it's really him." She was tired and lightheaded, drunk on the ominous prophesies that spilled out of her mouth in feverish ramblings. "Doctor, I know it sounds crazy, but you have to believe me, but I know that man, I've known him all my life. He's…He's…"

Her eyes rolled back and she blacked out. The Doctor was only just in time to catch her before she hit the ground.

**4.**

The entrance to the castle that the wildman pointed out was half-hidden behind a wall of decaying ivy. No more than a slit in the outer walls, it was surrounded by tons of rock and debris from the crumbling structure. Although the Master was slowly regaining his vision, it was difficult for him to see in the weak light of the moons how deep the narrow passage went.

"After you then old man." He told the prisoner, and jerked on the rope to get him on his feet.

"But-but I can't go through there." The wildman sputtered.

"Why not?"

"It's too narrow. I need to use my hands. If you want me to get through it you will have to untie me."

"Really?" The Master smirked. "I saw how you squirmed at the pointy end of my sword. Don't tell me you can't worm your way through this."

"Please I can't! I-"

He pushed him down on the pile of rubble where he landed roughly on his knees.

"Crawl like the maggot you are." He ordered him.

The old man did what he was told. He managed to get inside the gap on his elbows and pushed his body through the debris that obstructed the passage with his feet. Soon he had completely disappeared inside the wall, leaving only the end of the rope behind in the Master's hand. When the rope ran out of slack, he pulled it tight and shouted down the tunnel.

"Are you there yet?"

There came no reply from the other side. He pulled the rope even tighter. Now a choking sound could be heard, followed by the rumble of stones and debris tumbling down.

"Answer me!" The Master yelled, loosing his patience.

"Yes!" The reply came quickly, if not a bit nervously. "Yes, yes I am!"

"Do you see anything?"

"I can see…I can see the towers…and the great hall…all in ruins."

That wasn't much of a surprise since the whole place was trampled by a barbaric horde of inter-dimensional warlords. The Master climbed on top of the rubble and started scrambling inside the passageway. "Stay where you are. I am coming in."

The old man's efforts to force himself through the narrow opening had made the tunnel slightly larger, and the Master, although still suffering from his injuries, went through it relatively easy. When he emerged at the other end, he found his prisoner waiting for him, cowering at the foot of a pile of rubble that had spilled out over the courtyard.

He could see far more now. His remarkable healing capacity had quickly restored his eyesight. The shivering figure before him was no longer only a dark outline against the scarce light of dawn. He could see the old man's face contorted in pain and fear, but his grey faded eyes kept staring at him without blinking. If this spineless dog in human disguise still had teeth, it would have gone for the jugular as soon as he turned his back on him.

"What are you looking at me for?" The Master brushed the damp mud from his clothes. _If looks could kill._ He grinned and pulled on the rope, forcing the old man to come stumbling over, and kicked him back on his feet. "Stop wasting my time. Show me to the entrance of the tomb."

They crossed the courtyard where the remains of the victims of the last bloody battle still lay shattered all over the ground, their dry bones crunching beneath their feet. Gazing up, the Master noticed that one of the great corner towers had collapsed on top of the great hall, splitting the roof in two, while the walls of the ruined kitchen and the stables still bore the black scars of fire. At the east side of the castle, under a long stretch of covered parapet walk, they finally found the entrance of the tomb. It was just like he remembered it, with the narrow passage way guarded by two immense stone figures of the Great Salt God. As he glanced over their cold stoney faces, he suddenly realized that they resembled Rassilon.

"He sees you." His prisoner whispered, looking up at the statues in awe. "He sees everything. He knows you're here."

"Let him watch. I am not afraid of him." The Master sneered back, and he was about to venture down into the chambers below when the old man grabbed on to him. "Don't go down that road." He pleaded. "I know what you want. I know why you are here. It won't work. It won't stop him."

"What are you playing at you old fool? Suddenly the lunacy has passed and you are foretelling my future now?"

The Master might ridicule and consider him mad, but the look on the old man's face was one of clear sanity. "Mark my words Nightmare Child." No good will ever come of this. You seek revenge but all that this will bring you is death and sorrow. You will lose Timelord. You will lose everything."

The cautionary words of the old man only raised the fire in his belly. Enraged, the Master pushed him away and kicked the poor wretch in the side to make him shut up. "From now on, hold your tongue if you wish to keep it." The Master dragged the yelled whimpering prisoner back on his feet. "Walk! Get down the stairs!"

**5.**

Sharp light shone through her closed eyelids. It made them flutter lightly. Donna was aware that she wasn't awake, but she wasn't dreaming either. She wasn't even sure that she had dreams left of her own. But she was safe. She was inside a soft, warm cocoon, in a place inside her head that was still hers, sealed off from the Master's nightmare visions.

She heard voices coming from far. They want her to wake up. She wasn't sure that she was ready yet. If she was to regain consciousness, her mind was no longer hers alone. She didn't want to see those things that were still hidden inside her memories.

_His_ memories.

Not hers.

_His_ monsters.

But even inside what should be her safe-heaven, she wasn't completely protected.

She picked up a smell.

A light, delicate scent, airy and sweet, like the flowers in the summer in a hot Mediterranean country. Ripe fruit on the trees.

She smelled orange blossom.

Orange blossom…and something else.

**6.**

They were following the winding staircase that went deep down into the catacombs. The old man led the way. With each step, it became darker and colder. The air became more suffocating, and was filled with the stench of damp mould and decaying leaves, of wet soil and…something else.

_It's orange blossom._ He thought. The smell unnerved him. _It doesn't belong in this place, so far buried under the earth where the sun can never reach._

Just when he was about to take another step, the old man suddenly turned and grabbed hold of his leg. It happened so fast that there was no time to respond and he lost his balance. Falling forward, his chin landed hard on one of the stone slabs below and he tasted blood when his teeth snapped shut, biting off the tip of his own tongue. Then he was rolling, landing on his elbow, on his side, and on his back, tumbling down fast. He rolled over the side of the stone steps and plummeted straight down into the darkness till something soft caught him in mid-air. Leaves and branches broke his fall and cradled his head and injured body. They fold his limbs around him in awkward angles and left his feet dangling over his head.

He immediately sensed danger. The air around him was so thick with that strange intoxicating scent that he had trouble to breathe. He had to free himself. He searched for his sword to cut himself down, but realized that he had lost it during his fall. He struggled frantically, his instincts warning him that he had to get out fast.

Under the cover of darkness, an army of air-roots and tentacle like branches began to slither into his direction.

**7.**

_Even if you survive, you won't be able to find your way in dark. They always move around in the dark._

"Who said that?" Donna eyes flew open. "Where am I?" She stirred, trying to get up. The scent was still there, lingering in her nose with that sickening sweetness.

"Donna! You're back! It's me. You here with me." The Doctor supported her and let her sit upright. "You've fainted."

"There is this strange smell." Donna muttered. "Oranges and flowers. Orange blossom. And something else."

"What is she on about? I can't smell anything but rotten bog air." Gellard remarked.

"She's having another vision." The Doctor explained to him. "For some reason, the link between the Master and her is still there and growing stronger."

"It's like the good lady is possessed." Gellard looked alarmed.

The Doctor looked worriedly at her. "The question is why? Why is it happening? It's even stronger than I have ever seen before with any other Timelord. The Master couldn't have done this on purpose. It makes no sense."

"Maybe he wants to slow us down, knowing that you will pursue him, but won't leave lady Noble on her own."

"No it's not that." The Doctor shook his head and turned back to Donna. "What else do you smell? It's not only orange blossom, is it?"

"It's…like that smell in the hospital. I've worked as a temp at the registration desk a few years ago, and down in the cellar of the hospital, they used to keep the archive of the patients next to the morgue. I went down there at least twice a week. It's like…"

"Embalmment fluid." He immediately knew what it meant. "Orange blossom and embalmment fluid. The scent of the deadly nightshade."

"But that plant is poisonous." Gellard noted. "Besides they don't grow here so far south. They only flourish in the icefields further up north where there is at least nine months of continues darkness each year."

"Or they can grow underground, where it's always dark." The Doctor said, getting up. "What Donna has seen is not just another one of the Master's old memories. It's happening right now. He must have entered the tomb." He dragged Donna back on her feet.

"Can you stand on your own?"

Donna nodded.

"Good. Now listen, I need you to run for me. Can you do that?"

Donna nodded again.

"Are you sure?"

"I am suffering from scary hallucinations, but I am not crippled, am I?" Donna reacted defiantly.

"Come on then." The Doctor took her hand. "We have got no time to lose!"

**8.**

Her face unfurled like a flower, and her breath was all sweetness and honey. "Are you not tired, Harry?" She asked, her ruby lips curling into a sad pout. "You look so very tired."

"Lu-Lucy." His mouth felt numb, his tongue useless. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he registered the millions of tiny little needles that broke through his skin as the purple plant-leaves wrapped themselves tightly around his chest. They injected him with a green narcotic substance that turned his senses numb and his muscles into jelly. Lucy's hand that felt so soft and loving as she stroked gently over his face, spread the icy numbness over his cheek.

"Why don't you rest? Close your eyes. You don't need to fight anymore. You're here with me. It's over. All over."

"Lucy." He whispered. "You hair, it smells… of orange blossom."

"Do you like it? If you stay here you can smell it all day." He was half-aware that a thick bundle of air roots with thick thorny spikes were crawling over his back and he flinched a little. "Hush now." She shushed. "Don't struggle. Let me help you. If you want to stay here with me, you will have to let me do this. It won't hurt, I promise."

The tip of the root buried itself into the back his neck. He felt a vicious sting and gasped in agony.

"Don't struggle." She whispered. "You're only making it worse."

"There is something else."

"Hush now, forget about the world. Close your eyes and sleep."

"Something…something….begins with an F. Form. For. Fork…" He sucked in his breath as the root began to slither around inside the gaping wound. "Form…Formaldehyde."

Orange blossom and formaldehyde.

Deadly Nightshade.

"So you do remember. Very clever Harry, but it's too late." She whispered. "Far too late."

He could still use his left hand. Clumsily following the line of his coat, he tried to find his pocket. He broke out in sweat when he forced his palm to close around the laserscrewdriver inside.

"Sleep now Harry." Her voice was luring him into unconsciousness. He feared that his trembling fingers had become too stiff to be of any use.

"Sleep with me in eternal darkness."

_Darkness, they can only grow in total darkness. _

With the very last of his strength, he slapped the laserscrewdriver onto the side of his leg, activating it. A radiant light burst into life. Lucy screamed and threw her branches in front of her eyes, but that could not shield her from the deadly glow. Her lush purple leaves curled up into brown crisps and her deadly air roots shriveling in the fierce glow. The last thing he saw before he fell was her face, withering away like a flower in a fierce drought. Then he dropped straight down for at least ten feet before hitting the hard ground below.

**9.**

"It's gone." Donna muttered, struggling to keep up with him. "Doctor it's gone. I can't smell it anymore."

The Doctor hardly looked back as they continued to run across the last stretches of wetlands. "We're nearly there. I can almost see the castle walls. Don't stop!"

**10.**

Whispers…

Whispers in the dark.

"Are you…still breathing?"

He opened his eyes and stared into the diminished red glow of his laser screwdriver. A shadow moved at the border of the small circle of light, stalking the injured Timelord like a hungry predator in the deep dark forests.

"Still unable to move?…Unable to feel?"

A sharp sting went through his calf and he cried out in pain.

"So you _can _still feel…Lucky me."

The Master was lying on his stomach and stirred weakly when the old man stepped out of the darkness. His reddened eyes were devoid of any empathy, and he had found the Master's sword.

"You believe that this is not just. Believe me, it's better this way, for both of us. You won't like what will happen to you if I don't end this now."

He aimed the sword at the back of his neck. Just when he was about to bring it down on him, the Master whirled around at the very last moment with the laser screwdriver in his hand and fired. The blast hit the blade and turned the steel red-hot from the tip down to the hilt. It burnt the old man's hands and he dropped the weapon on the ground. He was still screaming when the Master grabbed his thin turkey-like neck and pushed him out of the circle of light and into the darkness where the hungry carnivorous plants were waiting.

He forced him into the foliage till the sharp spikes pierced through the wildman's back. Tasting blood, the air roots immediately started to tunnel into the fresh wounds, crawling underneath the skin like rain-worms digging into warm wet soil.

The Master left him there, dangling in a deadly bundle of branches as the plants devoured him, the tentacle-like roots so starved for substance that they did not wait for the leaves to provide the sedative. When the Master retrieved the sword, the leaves were just reaching out towards their victim, but instead of letting them get to him, the Master hacked them down, leaving the old man exposed to the most excruciating agony.

He laughed insanely as he watched with cruel amusement how his victim suffered. "What were you planning to do? Cut off my head? I told you, I cannot die you idiot! Why, I might even be able to grow a new one. It would probably be as easy for me as for a lizard to re-grow a tail." The deranged smile vanished from his face. "You on the other hand, might not be able to grow anything back."

"Please." The old man begged. "Don't…don't leave me like this…"

"Oh I promise I won't. In fact, cross my hearts and hope to die." He dragged the tip of the sword over his shoulder-blade. "But…I am curious though…"

"What? What do you…what are you going to do to me? No! Please NO!"

The Master returned him a dark shark-like grin. "We still have a little time left. So let's do a little experiment, shall we?"

_**TBC**_

The final chapter will be up next week Saturday. Please review this story if you enjoy it, it keeps me motivated to go on.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**1.**

The narrow crevice in the ruined east wall of castle Dagonmourn was not easy to find, but the Doctor and his companions had a stroke of luck when the first rays of the morning sun hit the crumbling pile of rubble in front of the entrance just at the right angle. It was Gellard who spotted it first, and after they all had struggled through and came out at the other side in the inner courtyard, the Doctor only needed a second to pick up the Master's scent. "That way!" He yelled, sprinting ahead from the others into the direction of the covered parapet walk. Sir Titanis and Gellard followed swiftly, but Donna had difficulty keeping up with the men. Shocked as she was that they seemed to have stumbled on a boneyard.

"They're dead Donna!" The Doctor yelled back at her, his patience running thin. "They can't hurt you and you won't hurt them. So come on! What are you waiting for? Keep up!"

"Is it just me, or was that the Master talking?" Donna complained as she skipped over as many skeletons as she possible could. She almost bumped into the Gellard's back when the Doctor suddenly stopped in front of the entrance of a narrow passageway that was guarded by two giant statues.

"Hang on." She muttered, sniffing the cold damp air that rose up from the catacombs below. "That's that smell I've been telling you about. The Master must have gone down here."

The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and fiddled with it till a strong blue light started to glow at the top end.

"Oh that is a big light." Donna muttered nervously. "Please tell me that's just for watching our steps and not to keep away anything nasty like flesh-eating shadows…"

"The Vashta Nerada? Not this time." He shone the beam into the entrance, revealing a winding staircase. "But there is something down there that is very hungry indeed." And with that said, he took the first step down the narrow stairs. The others followed him after a short moment of hesitation, uncertain of what they would find lurking in the dark.

**2.**

"That scent is getting stronger. And it's getting humid, and hot…like in some kind of tropical rainforest…"

Donna made sure that she kept her eyes on the slippery steps in front of her as they descended. In the blue glow of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver turned torchlight, she could see a whole family of centipedes the size of German sausages crawl down the damp walls and disappear underneath the thick layers of dead leaves that seemed to cover every surface. No wonder that this place was crawling with bugs. There were bits of decomposing plant material everywhere.

She didn't like creepy crawlies even on her best days, but these were large enough to give her nightmares.

"How does this plant stuff get here?" Donna asked. "It's not like it can be blown down here by the wind. We're too far down from the entrance."

"It grows here." The Doctor answered, keeping on eye on the others. "That scent you picked up via the Master's mind link is from the flowers of the Deadly Nightshade, a rare carnivorous plant that likes to catch its prey using harpoon like air roots before it injects it victim full of poison and digestive juices. It's indigenous to Saltsea and it's extremely rare."

"Okay…just for my peace of mind, when you say carnivorous, do you mean snacking on flies, beetles, and creepy large centipedes…those sort of things?"

"No…not really…More like dogs and cats, cows and horses. It's a big plant with a big appetite. They are really pretty though." The Doctor mused. "They have these blue stems and pink fluorescent leaves, and the flowers pulse with different shades of purple while the peddles are sort of fleshy and wave like the tentacles of sea-lilies."

"If you put it that way, it actually sounds fun to walk into a cheery bunch of them. Shame that we get turned into liquid plant fertilizer though." Donna joked to hide her nervousness.

"Don't worry. They can only grow in the dark. Harsh lights will kill them. That's why we need this." He waved the blue light in front of Donna's face and winked. "Keeps them at a safe distance and informs them politely that we are not lunch."

As they descended further down into the catacombs, the first signs of the darkness loving plants made way to a underground jungle that was thick and lush. As soon as the Doctor and his companions approached some of the hungry branches lashed out for them only to shrivel away instantly when they touched the dim blue glow of the sonic screwdriver.

"Doctor…are you sure this is enough to keep them away from us." Gellard asked, eying anxiously at a particularly large flower that unfurled very close to him and pulsed with alluring green and yellow pedals. The chemical orange smell was overwhelming, and the young knight was swaying lightly on his feet.

"Don't get too close." The Doctor pulled him away from the flower. "The scent of the flowers contains a strong neurotoxin that makes you hallucinate. Combine that with a claustrophobic hothouse full of man-eating flowers and you get the perfect setting for a freak-accident. Stay in the light, and be careful."

They finally reached the bottom of the staircase. The moment Donna set foot on the forest grounds she was struck with amazement. They were in a huge subterranean space where the alien-looking plants grew as tall as trees, creating the illusion of a forest. Tree-like trunks that emitted a soft blue glow rose up straight into a canopy of rustling pink leaves, while the forest floor was covered with tiny flowers in the most dazzling colors that glistened like a bed of stardust between the carpet dead leaves.

"You're right. They are beautiful." Donna whispered.

"My forefathers used to tell us about the frozen lands that are far up in the north beyond the cursed lands of Dagonmourn." Ser Titanis muttered. "Between the barren fields of ice and snow these purple forests can be found, consisting entirely out of Nightshades. This must be how they look like."

"How do these plants get here?" Gellard asked, gazing round in wonderment, but careful where to put his next step.

"Someone must have brought them down as seeds. One of the Lord Dagonmourn's warriors who have ventured up north for exploration perhaps." The Doctor muttered, carefully making his way through the thick vegetation. He was using the beam of light from his sonic to clear the path. "Who knows…Maybe they've been dropped here deliberately to germinate and grow inside the tomb. After all, after the human guardians are gone, these plants are the only ones left to protect this place from intruders."

The Doctor froze when he heard Donna utter a scream behind him. "What? What is it?" He yelled and turned back to check on her.

"Doctor…look!" Donna stared with a look of pure horror at the broken figure hanging from the vines. The Doctor let the beam shine over her gruesome find and the dim light of the sonic revealed the face of the old man that had attacked him in the woods. His arms had been cut off and were replaced by the branches of the Nightshade, whose hungry blue tentacles were tunneling into the bloody stumps of his what was left of his shoulders into his torso. Donna could hardly imagine the horrible agony the poor man must be in. As soon as the light fell on the Nightshade, the branches and the roots shriveled into dry sinewy twigs dropped the mutilated body of their victim on the forest floor.

"Who is this?" Gellard asked, gazing down with revulsion and pity. "And who did this to him?"

The Doctor was too shocked to answer him, but the old man was still conscious and struggled to speak.

"Doctor…" He whispered, his voice was weak, contorted in pain. "Doctor…is that you?"

"Yes. I am here." His hearts felt a pang of grim hopelessness and his shoulders sagged as the realization sank in. He came closer to him. "It was the Master, wasn't it?" His voice caught in his throat.

"The Nightmare Child Doctor." The dying man responded. "Beware of him. He will destroy you. He will destroy us all."

"The Master did this?" Donna whispered in disbelief.

"That man is the devil incarnated!" Ser Titanis cried out in outrage. "Only a monster without a soul would have done this to an innocent soul!"

A flash of red light disappeared behind a swaying curtain of purple leaves. The Doctor looked over at Gellard. "No!" He shouted. Panic gripped his voice. "Don't go after him!" But the young man had already disappeared into the thick foliage with his sword ready in his hand. The Doctor threw his sonic at Donna, who caught it clumsily. "Keep this with you and stay here! Don't let the plants come anywhere near you. I am going after him!"

"Come out you coward! Come out and fight me!" Gellard yelled out, slashing through the thick undergrowth, his gaze fixed on finding the source of the red light, but now it seemed as if this entire part of the Nightshade forest was bathing in a dim red glow. As he kept searching, a hand grabbed him by his shoulder and yanked him back. He turned and instinctively raised his sword to strike, only to stop at the very last moment when he realized that it was the Doctor.

"What are you doing? Didn't I tell you that you should stay in the light!"

"I saw him Doctor. I saw him! That was the Master!" Gellard rambled, convinced of his own conclusions. "He did this. He murdered Olaf and Jenkin!"

"Gellard, calm down! You're upset because of what you saw."

"But it must be him! Didn't you see what he did to that poor man? We can't let him get away with this, we just can't!"

The Doctor's suddenly broke his gaze and glanced over Gellard's shoulder. His face turned grim.

"Don't you dare to hurt that boy." He warned him in a solemn voice.

There was a red dot that danced on Gellard's chest, right at the spot where his heart should be.

"What is this?" Gellard's nerves finally snapped when the leaves suddenly parted and a shadow stepped forward. Panicking, he swung his sword, but before the blade could strike his opponent down, a red laserbeam blasted his weapon out of his hand. The Doctor immediately ran forward to defend him.

"Oh please…." The Master rolled his eyes. "That runt threatened to kill me. What do you want me to do?" He circled the unarmed knight, keeping a steady aim on his target. "Typical of you to always put your pets first."

"Don't you harm him! Haven't you done enough already?"

"You mean that mad old git? That was just a little experiment. I had a suspicion that he might be immortal, like me. He certainly looks as ancient and ruined as this dilapidated place. I was just wondering if he had the same regenerative capacity. So…I to put it to the test…what?" He laughed. "Oh Don't tell me you're shocked and disappointed."

"You're sick." Embittered, the Doctor shook his head. "What you've done to him was unforgivable."

The Master pulled an innocent face in mockery. "If that's so, isn't it then not about time that you do exactly that, stop forgiving me? Surely, after all that I have done you must be running out of excuses by now…"

"Is it true? Did you kill Olaf and Jenkin?" The Doctor felt his hearts turn to stone as he said it.

"Those two idiots from the Midwall? Who knows? Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. What would you like to hear Doctor?"

"The truth."

He smiled at him. It was the sinister grin of a cat playing with a dead mouse. "Oh…you want the truth…hmmm let me see…The truth is that you should have abandoned the hope to cure me a long time ago, but you were too stupid and too stubborn to do so. The truth is that after all this time, I am still cold, calculative and ruthless and capable of coldblooded murder in order to get what I want. You may try to cage a lion Doctor, but it will still have its teeth and claws."

The Doctor was heartbroken. "Master, why? Why are you doing this? Tell me, what it is…what do you want?"

"Isn't it obvious then?" He hissed, and came closer to him, his dark eyes shining with a deranged type of anger. "I want my revenge."

**3.**

"We should go after the Doctor. They could be in danger." Ser Titanis remarked, losing his patience.

"We can't just leave." Donna stared at the mutilated wildman. "If we take the light away the plants will get him."

"Well we must do something! I'm not going to lose another one of my men!"

"The Doctor can handle this. We have to stay here just like he told us to."

"Don…Donna…" The old man's breath stalled for a moment, then he called her again. Donna approached him cautiously.

"Yes…I am here. Don't give up just yet. We're here now. The Doctor is here. He can help you."

"Noble lady, you were once kind to me. I will remember it. I shall repay your kindness next time we meet…You must remember me too."

Donna assumed that the poor man had suffered so much that he had lost his wits, so she humored him and played along.

"Yes. Yes I will." She forced herself to smile. "Now hush. Don't tire yourself with talking."

"No, I must speak now. I have only very little time left…" He swallowed and gazed at her with hooded, blood-shot eyes. "I couldn't stop him."

"It wasn't your fault."

"Oh but it was. I am the guardian of the tomb. One of the last. Now there is nothing…nothing left to stop him from returning…The Nightmare Child…his thirst for revenge blinds him…he will open Pandora's box and bring destruction to us all. The whole of creation shall suffer and be cast into eternal darkness…Time…shall be no more…" His words choked as a bubbling mass of crimson rose up his throat. "No more time…no more past and future…the fabric of reality unraveling…too late…far too late." He mumbled, his voice weakening.

Raw fear gripped her heart. "Why do you tell me this?"

"You Donna Noble…you are so very important…so very precious to him…so very precious to us all…you are the last to emerge from Pandora's box. Remember me Noble lady, for we shall meet again…" He gasped for air and coughed out a spray of blood.

"What do you mean?" Donna's face clouded with confusion. "I am nothing special. Don't say that. Please…hold on…" She turned around in desperation. "Doctor! Doctor, we need you! Come back!"

"Don't…Don't call for him…Leave me…" The old man gasped.

"We can't just let you die."

"My body is broken. There's nothing you can do…Let me go…Leave me in the dark. Let the plants come for me…Please…"

Donna was reluctant, but the dying man's persistence and the dreadful suffering he was in forced her to make the decision. So she stepped away from him. As soon as the protective blue light of the sonic retreated, the branches of the Deadly Nightshade crawled out of the dark and inched up towards its victim. The purple leaves crept up over his legs and his torso, all the way up to his face. When they reached his mouth and nostrils and started to smother him, she finally turned away.

"Lady Noble?" Ser Titanis asked.

Donna crossed over to the other side. "Don't." She said, unable to look him in the eyes and feeling sick to the very core of her soul. All she wanted to do is find the Doctor and get the hell out of this horrible nightmare. She pointed the sonic at the patch of vegetation in the direction where the Doctor and Gellard had disappeared. As soon as the blue beam hit the foliage, the plants started to retreat, clearing a path for them to go through.

**4.**

"Master, listen to me. This has to stop." The Doctor pleaded desperately. "If you go on like this…"

"Like what?" The Master grinned and pulled Gellard up to him while he stuck the laser screwdriver under his chin. "I don't know what you are fussing about. Everything is going according to _my _plans. Are you afraid of losing Doctor?"

"No! Don't! Don't hurt him."

"Then fuck off!" he grinned. "Oh come on, you know how this goes." He gave him a mischievous wink while he backed away from the Doctor with his hostage held in front of him as a living shield.

"Stop it! This is not a bloody game!"

"Oh it is…and it is an enjoyable one…till someone dies…Stop following me Doctor, and you may get your pawn back." The plants shifted aside and the Master disappeared with the young knight behind a swaying screen of deadly vegetation. The Doctor rushed after him, but without his sonic screwdriver, he was quickly left in the dark. The plants seized this opportunity and began to attack him, hungry branches shooting out over the forest floor to grab onto his ankles. He jumped away just in time to avoid being caught by a green tentacle-like root covered in nasty spikes. Eager to feed, the root kept following him, while a tangle of branches grabbed him from behind, and wrapping around his torso greedily with the strength of a boa constrictor trying to kill his next meal.

"Doctor!"

Donna's panicky voice rang in his ears as the deadly grip of branches diminished, and the blood that had been stuck in head flowed down again into his lower body. He gratefully took a lung full of air as the blue light of the sonic drove the monster plants back into darkness, and he was released from the tentacles.

"Where is Gellard?" Ser Titanis yelled.

"The Master took him. That stupid-stubborn idiot!" The Doctor replied with a raspy voice as the Donna helped him back up on his feet. "No sorry, I didn't mean your knight." He apologized to ser Titanis. "Why are you here? I told you to stay with the old man."

"Doctor…he's gone…" Donna felt a pang of guilt strangle her heart. "I tried. I am sorry, I really tried."

"It's not her fault Doctor." Ser Titanis tried. "The old man gave up on himself, and lady Noble was really concerned about your safety."

The Doctor was speechless. The Master was right. He was losing. All around him, people were dying. Good people, dropping dead like flies in the heat, and he, the Doctor, the man who had promised them that everything was going to be all right, that he could fix everything, could do nothing to save them. If this was also true for the Master…

He wiped the sweat from his face, forcing himself out of is inert state. "We have to go after them. Donna, give me the sonic."

**5.**

A sound echoed through the dark jungle. It was a mournful sound. A great sad bellowing, like that of a horde of thousand dying souls.

"What's that?" Gellard could hardly keep up with the Master as they stumbled aimless through the walls of leaves and branches with only the dim red glow of laserscrewdriver for protection. "It sounds like someone is crying…like someone is trapped."

The Master stopped abruptly. To him, the eerie disturbances in the dark did not sound like human cries.

"Oh…that's horrible!" Gellard whispered fearfully. "What's going on? Why are they weeping like that?"

The Master ignored him, and jerked the knight by his collar and pushed him into the direction of that most terrifying noise.

"What are you doing? Have you gone mad? Don't go to where it comes from!"

"Shut up and keep walking." The Master barked, keeping the tip of the sonic aimed at the back of the Gellard's neck.

"Those hideous cries…that must be the beast…the beast of Dagon's tomb. Why are you going there? We must flee away from him!"

"That's not the beast." The Master spat. "There are no real monsters in Dagonmourn. They are just made up fairy tales to keep trespassers out."

"But then…what's that horrible sound?"

The gaze that the Master returned to him was blank, almost soulless. "That my boy, is the song of the most precious thing in the whole of creation…and it's calling me home."

**6.**

In the heart of the labyrinth, the drapes of Nigthshade reluctantly parted its foliage to reveal a hidden chamber. A vast underground area with a high concave ceiling, it was surrounded by damp walls that threatened to collapse with age. However, the stone structures were remarkably free of the ever-advancing plant army of roots and creepers. Carved in the rocks were deep niches, each harboring a statue of those who were once mighty and powerful, but now forgotten, their names and stone faces eaten away by time till nothing remained to remind of their greatness. But the Master still knew who they are. A long time ago, he had fought on their side in the great time war. If they could see him now, one of the last of their bloodline, and knew what he had in mind, they would probably all crawl out from their graves and try to drag him down into the cold ground with them.

"Where are we?" Gellard muttered, his most base instincts were kicking in and he noticed anxiously the object at the far end the chamber, a large golden disk that reflected an eerie orange glow in the light of the laser screwdriver. The howls that came from the other end drove him almost mad with fear.

"This the heart of the Dagontomb." The Master eyes were also fixed on the golden disk, but his expression was one of almost religious devotion and fanatic excitement. "The very sacred place that your ancestors have paid with their lives to protect." He spread out his arms and glanced up at the ceiling and shut his eyes, almost like in a trance. "Look around you. Can you not sense the history, the tremendous power that resides within these walls, so very primal and destructive…" He breathed in deeply. "Oh it's absolutely intoxicating…"

"What do you want?" Gellard finally dared to ask. "Why are we here?"

"I've been here before." The Master mused. "In another time, in another life. My people sent me here to collect what was rightfully ours. I battled with countless armies, and had endured so many hardships, just to get here."

"You murdered thousands, innocent Saltmen and women, you've massacred them!"

"To save millions!" The Master angrily justified himself. "Well…at least that was the initial plan of my so-called superiors. Send out the Nightmare Child to collect the ultimate weapon to end the War of all Wars. It was the last and only solution that was left to them to save themselves and the rest of the universe from total annihilation. The Oracle had spoken her prophecies, I was their only hope." A grievous smile crossed his lips. "I think they could not have made a worse choice. You can hardly call me reliable."

"What's going on?" Gellard cried out. "Why is it moving like that?"

"She stirs because she is awakening." The Master gazed at the disk with a sense of deep longing. The golden surface stirred calmly in response like a thick gelatinous liquid. He approached the disk eagerly, forcing the poor terrified knight to come along with him. "She recognizes me." The Master whispered. "She knows that I am here."

"What? Who?" Gellard muttered, feeling the hot tip of the laser screwdriver burn under his chin. "What is that thing?"

"It is not a thing! Don't you dare to call her that! You're nothing compared to her magnificence." He was delirious and ecstatic, drunk on this one moment of true bliss that had been so very rare in his long and tired existence. He stopped in front of the disk, and reached out his hand to touch the restless liquid.

"No!" Gellard pleaded, realizing now where they were heading. "No! Don't take me through there. Not with those horrible voices inside. Can't you hear them? They are calling from behind! Don't go in there, please!"

But the Master could not hear it. His ears were deaf to the haunting cries that were driving Gellard to desperation. To him, there were only the drums…calling out to him through the grey mist of his past and future. The drums that had cast him down into the lowest and darkest pits of hell. The very drums that had robbed him from his sanity and driven him to madness, brutality and murder.

Oh how he welcome them like old friends.

He placed his hand flat on the golden surface, and almost immediately burnt the skin of his palm. It didn't matter. He hardly noticed the scorching pain.

"My beloved Tardis." He whispered as he felt the rigid stone surface turn soft and liquid as his hand pass through the golden surface like it was but a screen of water. He closed his eyes, images of his long dead father rushed through his mind.

"My most faithful companion. How long have you waited? At last, your master has returned. Now let me in and reclaim that what is rightfully mine."

**7.**

Donna was starting to seriously lag behind. "Doctor." She shouted and stopped and clutched her head. "Doctor!"

The Doctor rushed back to her, making sure to keep the plants at bay with the light of the sonic. "What? What is it?"

"He's there. He's inside." She was pressed her eyes shut to help her focus on the Doctor's face, but the dark chamber kept reappearing in her vision. "The Master has reached the tomb. He's standing right before the golden portal…Doctor, it's happening all over again…"

A dark look of determination crossed the Doctor's face.

"No." He muttered, shaking his head. He wheeled around and rushed through the forest. "NO!"

**8.**

"Do you realize that we all have been betrayed?" The Master told him, without taking his eyes from his price. As soon as the mad Timelord had let go of him, Gellard had scrambled away as far as he could possibly get from the disk with the mad swirling vortex inside, and was now cowering in a corner of the chamber with his back scraping against the stones. He would have fled if the portal through which they've entered had not mysteriously disappeared.

"What do you mean? H-how are we betrayed?"

"Your myths and stories about what happened, of what lies hidden here in the dark earth of the Hills of Sorrow. Your race's raison d'etre…The whole history of the Timelords, even my own bloody existence…it's all based on a big revolting lie." He paused, lost in the memories of those blood-drenched days of death and madness.

"Even though I was the one who was chosen to return him to the Timelords, the elders were reluctant to reveal the truth to me. I had to find out for myself." He finally turned and gazed at Gellard's angst ridden face. "The Gods you worship are the creators of my people. The Saltgod and Dagon are the Alpha and Omega of the Timelord race. But unlike what was propagated in the myths, it was not Dagon the creator who was the villain of the piece, but the Saltgod himself whose hunger for power corrupted him beyond redemption. It was Alpha, also know as Rassilon, who caused Omega's downfall and had entombed his essence in the Distorted Eye of Harmony after destroying his physical form. It was him, our most revered lord president of Gallifrey, who had betrayed his own brother. And yet, for generations, the children of Gallifrey were taught otherwise." He gazed into the darkness and let it slowly consume him. "The corruption of history by the conqueror turned the conquered into the monster of the night, while lies turned a blood-thirsty murderer in our savior, and transformed a god into a demon. The same lies brought me back, gave me a second change to redeem myself." A sarcastic smile crossed his lips.

"The Timelords have only resurrected me because they believed that I was the only one who was cunning and ruthless enough to release Omega from his cold prison between dimensions. They have used me as like chess-master would use a pawn. I don't like to played and manipulated. So I decided to take matters into my own hands..."

**9.**

A chill immediately ran down her spine the moment the purple vegetation parted to reveal the hidden chamber. "Oh my God." She muttered, entering the huge cavernous space cautiously. "This is it. This is the place that I've seen inside the Master's head. We're actually here! But…where the heck is the Master?" She looked around, getting more confused and fearful by the minute. "He was just here. I saw him. He was marching Gellard down to that big golden disk." She was getting the heebee-jeebees just by looking at it, and was immediately alarmed when the Doctor walked straight up to iy. "What are you doing? No! Don't go touch it!"

"It's not what you think it is." He replied, inspecting it closely.

"What in the great Saltgod's name is happening?" Ser Titanis asked. "Why does lady Noble keep insisting that the Master and Gellard are here?"

"Because she's right. They still are." The Doctor whirred the sonic over the surface of the golden surface, causing coarse ripples to appear. He turned to Donna. "This is not the portal that you've seen in the Master's memories. It's fake, a chameleon's cloak."

"But…how can they still be here?" Ser Titanis asked, confusion quickly turned into anger. "This chamber is clearly empty. Don't jest with the life of one of my men Doctor, there's absolutely no time!"

"A fake?" Donna repeated. "A fake what?"

"It's the Tardis." The Doctor explained hastily. "Well, not the Tardis, I mean not my Tardis…a Tardis…possibly, and very probably the Master's Tardis."

"The Master has his own Tardis?" Donna blurted out.

"Oh that's not so strange. Every Timelord was supposed to have his own Tardis. They were grown for every child of Galifrey from the moment they were born, but this one is from lord Oakdown, the Master's father. I recognize the signature. The Master stole it from him when he fled Gallifrey." The Doctor took a few steps back and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Master!" He yelled. "Master! It's me! Open the door!"

"If this is a Tardis, then why does it not look like a police box?"

"The Tardis only looks like a police box because the cloak circuits were broken and I really didn't felt like fixing them." The Doctor replied hurriedly. "Anyway, the chameleon circuit in the Master's Tardis is still operational, which means it can disguise itself into almost anything to blend into the surroundings. It's currently imitating the tomb chamber. The Master is still here, but inside the Tardis, behind that disk." He took a few steps back. "Master! Do you hear me? Open the door and let us in!"

_How long had it been? _The Doctor wondered. _Hundreds, thousands of years? And still the Tardis recognized him, the long-time symbiotic link remained unbroken. She still listened to the Master as if he had abandoned her only yesterday._

"Step aside! Let me handle this!" Ser Titanis cried out and came charging at the portal with his sword raised. Just when he was but two steps away from the disk and was about to strike his target, a violent wave rippled over the golden surface and an invisible force punched him hard in the chest. He was flung for meters across the chamber before he landed on his backside.

"It's no use. You can't force it open. He has locked it from the inside." The Doctor explained with a growing panic in his voice. "Master! Open up! Please!"

"He can't hear you." Donna muttered, contractions of pain flashed through her head. "He can't hear anything…because…oh…that noise…that horrible noise." She covered her ears and sunk through her knees. A sudden surge of paralyzing pain shot through her like a red hot spear. She was hardly aware that the Doctor came to her aid.

"Donna, what's wrong?"

"There are drums…" Donna cried. "Drums pounding inside my head! Make it stop Doctor! Please! Make it stop!"

**10.**

The drums were calling to him. Step by step he moved closer to the corrupted eye of harmony that was hidden inside his Tardis. The whole underground tomb was enclosed by the strong structures of the time craft as if swallowed whole by a vast hungry maul. It had been the only way to stabilize the portal after it had been ripped apart. Without the powerful singularity core of the Master's Tardis supplying the huons of energy to contain it, the raw violent force streaming out of the breach in the fabric of reality would have destroyed the entire universe.

"The Timelord council had ordered me to sacrifice the eye of harmony of my own living Tardis to transport what was left of Omega's essence back to Gallifrey." The Master continued to explain, the recollections of his past tasted like ashes in his mouth. "There they would find a way to harvest and use this boundless source to battle the Dalek forces. You should have seen them, they were so bloody sure of themselves. If only I would succeed, victory would be ours. Yet another lie that needed to be told. In reality the elders had absolutely no idea what to do with it other than to bring back Rassilon and ask the glorious late lord president to think of something clever to save their worthless lives. When I finally found out what all of my hard work and bloody sacrifices were for, I decided not to fight for their cause any longer."

Gellard watched how the mirror-like disk trembled when the Master extended his hand to it and nearly touched the golden surface. "Stop it! Don't" Gellard pleaded. "The voices coming from inside are warning us! We should leave it be!"

"Oh stop being spineless." He scorned. "Men of the Midwall were supposed to be heroes, not bedwetting cowards." But the smirk on the Master's face was badly forged as he felt his own double heartbeat pick up pace. Before his eyes, the golden shine parted and revealed the millstream of the timevortex, and through the fog of the times gone by, a dark figure appeared, his silhouette cutting through the mist as he came riding on his two headed beast over the windswept moors.

"Finally." The Master whispered. "I've been waiting for you."

The man on the other side dismounted and walked up to the mirror gate. His startling blue eyes gazed right through the thin veil of time and met the Master's own steel grey eyes. The harsh grin that appeared on the man's lips mirrored that of the Master.

"You've come back." His reflection in the mirror said.

"Yes." The Master replied calmly. "And this time I will not fail."

**11.**

"The Master…he's going to try again…" Donna muttered, falling limp in the Doctor's arms as he rushed over to her, her voice trailed off into a slumber. "Doctor…We can't…We can't let him…"

"Donna please look at me!" The Doctor shook her shoulders as she was struggling to remain awake. "What do you see? What is he doing? Tell me!"

"The tomb…the disk. It's a gateway into a space between worlds." Her eyelids fluttered wildly as her consciousness mixed with that of the Master. Her mind was like a witches cauldron as she came to know all that the Master knew. "Something is stirring in the dark. A lost Timelord, powerful and ancient. He's been there for so long, trapped in the cold void that it has claimed his sanity. The Master is going to release him to help him defeat Rassilon, he wants to revenge himself by absorbing all of his strengths and his powers."

"Omega." The Doctor whispered, his hearts turning into two lumps of ice. "No. NO. NO! He can't do this! He can't!"

"Who's Omega?" Ser Titanis asked.

"A Timelord god. A fallen Titan who once awakened will lay everything to ashes." The Doctor shook his head and pulled his hair. "He can't bring him back. He will not be able to control him! I have to talk him out of this!"

"How are you going to stop him Doctor? You can't even get to him!" The Saltlord opted.

"Donna….Listen to me…I can't reach him without your help." The Doctor placed his hands flat on Donna's temples.

"What? W-What are you going to do?" Donna muttered in her half-awaken state.

"I am sorry. But I need to do this."

She screamed when the Doctor forced his mind into the mad chaos of her own. Suddenly, she was trapped inside a violent whirlwind of thoughts and voices that came from both Timelords, each of them stronger and more powerful than her own. It's like she was forced out of her own body, out of her own mind and existence, and pushed away in a little corner where she lingered as a voiceless entity that was barely conscious. Reduced to a passive observer of the drama that was unfolding before her, she saw in her mind's eye the stage that was set inside the Master's locked Tardis where this final catastrophic act was going to be played out between the two Timelords.

**12.**

"What are you doing?" Gellard yelled, watching the Master's actions with growing terror. "Don't! You can't let Dagon's ghost loose on this world! It will destroy everything!"

"That's not Dagon's ghost you dimwit. That is me." The Master stared at his reflection of his by gone regeneration with a sense of pride. "The Nightmare Child who the Elders brought back to fight the war. The man who sacked Dagonmourn and got rid of your wretched ancestors." He paused and shut his eyes. "Oh how I long for those forgotten days. At least back then, my hearts do not bear the rotten burden of my conscience. There were no voices to stir me awake. Only dark dreamless sleep." When he opened his eyes again they burned fiercely with greed as he gazed at his almost perfect reflection. How he envied him. How he wanted to become him…And he shall.

The Nightmare Child smiled confidently at him behind the eye of harmony. "Are you sure? You know that you've tried before -"

"And have died a thousand deaths to pay for my foolishness and pride." The Master added. "Yes, I do remember. My mortal body could not contain it, and in the end I had to sacrifice my Tardis to safe myself from losing my last few precious regenerations. But time has changed me. Thanks to that old serpent Rassilon, I am now immortal and more than worthy of Omega's noble gift." He wanted it. He craved it. His hunger for Omega's power was primeval, a dark force inside him that was more ancient and true than anything else in his life, and for a moment he wondered why he had tried to deceive himself for so long. He was a monster, a wolf in sheep's clothing, and none of the good what he had done with the Doctor could have ever changed his ravenousness nature.

"Let me claim it." He demanded from his mirror-self. "Let me merge with Omega's essence and restore Rassilon's greatest enemy to his former glory!"

_Master!_

Doctor's voice penetrated through the protection shield of the Tardis' exterior and entered his mind, the last voice of reason in ocean of madness and rage.

The Master swallowed and watched how his mirror image smiled slyly at him. _Go on then. A good dog should respond to his master's call. I knew you wouldn't have the guts to let me out. I knew it all along._

"Doctor…I have not expected to speak to you again." He said, forcing himself to remain calm.

_Master please listen to me! You can't free Omega from the dark void. Think! That amount of power is too much for anyone to control. It's impossible, even for an immortal Timelord. If you try to absorb him he will certainly destroy you! _

"If my final act will ensure the destruction of Rassilon than I am willing to make that sacrifice." The Master answered stubbornly.

_Can't you see that he's not worth it? Rassilon has controlled you ever since you entered the Vault of Cold Lamentations as a child. Don't let him destroy the rest of your life. You can't let him do this do you. You cannot let fear and anger take over!_

"I warn you, get out of my head Doctor. I have made up my mind."

_Look at where you are now. Remember all that you have done since you were released from the drums. You've come so far, don't just throw it all away, only because you think this is the easy way out. It's not. Stop and think! Please! You don't need to fight Rassilon alone. I am here…_

There was a moment of hesitation that granted the Doctor a shimmer of hope that somehow his strayed friend could be persuaded by these heartfelt words.

"It's true." The Master whispered. "You have always been a good friend to me. You've never let me down."

_And I never will. If only you would let me help. Please Master, turn around. Step away from the gate. Just…Let it go._

"I…I can't" The Master replied, reason twisting back into obstinacy and irrationality, he shook his head as a tear spilled down his cheek. "It's too late. Far too late."

_It's never too late -_

"Stop this pretence Doctor. I know the truth. I know about the prophecies that sweet River Song has whispered in your ears, back in the quiet forest of Great Birnam Woods."

He could feel the Doctor's anxiety grow through their mind-link. _How did you…_

"Oh you are so consumed by your troubled thoughts that they are as loud as the cries of a drowning man. There was never a chance that you could keep this a secret from me. She told you everything, didn't she? You knew about the symbol of three and the Infinity cooperation, the return of Rassilon. You knew about Rachel, Donna and Anne…you knew what would happen to her and still you didn't warn me -"

_It's not what you think…I didn't know everything. Besides I wanted to protect you-_

"Protect me from what?" He scoffed. "The return of Rassilon? The rise of the Nightmare Child? That bitch warned you about me, didn't she? She knew what I will become…what I will do to this world…what I will do to you…"

_Master, don't do this…if you release Omega, that is it! That will be the end. You will seal your own fate and with it that of the rest of the universe. Please listen…It's not too late. Please…I beg you to stop. Stop while you still can._

"NOTHING can be changed!" The Master shouted, and reached out to the portal, determined and scared at the same time. "Fate has already decided. This is where I have to be." His voice quivered as he forced himself to remain strong. "Every path that I have taken in the past has led me to this…this specific point in time…has guided me to this place. It is my destiny. No one can chance the outcome…not me…not even you."

The past incarnation of the Master mimicked his actions and also reached out, placing the palm of his hand against his.

_Goodbye Doctor. _He whispered to him, just before he severed the mindlink. _See you at the end._

_No, no, NO! Master don't!_

**13.**

The Doctor's voice disappeared in a blizzard of sounds and images. The thin membrane between our universe and the void melted away and the raw, freezing energy of the deep empty darkness of the void exploded through his body. His mind filled up with an infinity of knowledge of all of the existing universes and the dark places in between. Time and space unraveled into thin ribbons, then disintegrated into atoms, to reveal to him their secrets so that he understood and knew everything, and with that, could change everything.

He realized that he could alter the past with just his will alone. He could construct new universes by altering physical laws and splitting atoms. He could let the sun rise in the west and grind mountains into dust. He could destroy life as easily as he could create it. He was all-powerful, invincible and supreme.

He was transforming into a living, breathing God.

But as the Master had learned long ago, every great gift must come at a great cost.

His own existence was disappearing. The memories of his life and the sense of self peeled away like old paint from an old weathered surface. The greatest of all Timelords does not tolerate another consciousness in this limited corporal form of mere flesh and bones, even if it was an immortal one. So everything that the Master was, everything that defined and had shaped him, was all being stripped away, only to be replaced by a red thunderous beast of rage. For although Omega had been trapped for billions of years in the emptiness of the void, he had not forgotten Rassilon's betrayal. Vengeance was what had fuelled his resurrection, and so all of us will come to know his wrath. Not only Rassilon, but all of the Timelords scattered throughout space and time will suffer. He will wipe their existence from the silver coil of the timevortex. He will blast the stars from the skies and shroud it in eternal darkness, and turn the universe into nothing more but a graveyard of empty shells, drifting in a vast cold emptiness devoid of life and light.

_Magnificent. _He though, irrationally, and insanely. _Magnificent and merciless. Let them burn, them all BURN!_ _The whole of creation shall suffer by the hands of their new vengeful master!_

Blinded by the apocalyptic visions, and having lost every contact with the physical world, he did not sense nor see the blade that came for him. Only when the steel pierced through his back and spilled the blood from his corporal form that was still locked in the resurrection process, did he turn and look into the eyes of the brave Midwall knight who had dared to attack him. Enraged, the half-God released a deadly blast at him, and Gellard screamed when the bolt hit him and turned into an inferno that melted the iron from his armor plates and boiled his flesh inside his harness. His suffering was short. Within a second he was no more, his body vaporized by the intense heat.

The Master's fate was far less forgiving.

Severely weakened by the assault, he realized that he could no longer control all of Omega's violent power. His strength was leaving him, seeping away fast through the bloody slash where the sword had struck him and had punctured his lungs and major arteries. The hold of Omega on his mind was diminishing as well, only to leave his own self to resurfaced together with a deep dark sense of _fear_. He struggled back on his feet as he continued to fight for breath with his lungs drowning in blood. Inside his chest, he could feel that both his hearts were slowly grinding to a hold.

The Master, was dying.

Struggling to remain standing, he staggered away from the corrupted eye of harmony and collapsed over the base of a nearby statue. It seemed that fate was not yet done playing cruel tricks on him, for when he cast his eyes up to the ceiling, he found himself staring right into the face of a stone portrait of his own murdered father. Lord Oakdown looked down upon him sternly, and in his final agonizing moments, he could read all of his father's contempt and disappointment in those lifeless granite eyes.

_Never has there been in Gallifreyan history such a heinous crime committed by a Timelord. Such an unnatural, beastly act. Such barbarism._

"Please, father no." He murmured weakly, but his dying mind kept projecting these disturbing visions onto the stone mercilessly. It was as if the demons of his wicked past had all returned to claim their pound of flesh from his dying soul. "I did this to redeem myself. To change everything, to turn it back as it should have been." He wept tears of anger and frustration. "It wasn't my fault." He begged. "If it wasn't for Rassilon…and the drums…I could have been more…I could have been better, but I had no choice."

_You need help my boy. You can't go on like this. Let me warn the council. I promise that once they know what made you do all this they won't be too harsh on you. _

"No!" He cried out. "They won't understand. They will only see the monster. They will demand revenge and scream for my blood." He licked his lips and tasted iron on his tongue. "The Doctor…Please father, don't…Don't let him in. I don't want him to see me…not like this…"

The ancient energy that spilled out of the gaping wound in his back swarmed around the closed chamber in a raging storm of ghouls and furies. In his madness, he saw them all as avenging spirits who he had wronged in his long and sinful life. Lucy and Anne, lady Gwendolyn and her children, Dea and Ravenius, Redgrave and lord Dagon. They all cried out to him, cursing his name and condemning his existence. A swirling and howling mass, his own guilt-ridden conscience turned to flesh. Desperate to get away from all this, he searched blindly around the statue and finally found the seal hidden in stone beneath the statue's feet.

He pressed it down and the haunted chamber washed away in a blinding red light together with the cursed portal. The wheezing, churning heart of Lord Oakdown's ancient Tardis rose out of the ground, and just before the Master collapsed on floor, the stone walls reshaped themselves into an closed room, the living, membrane like walls stretching over sinewy branches similar to the boney finger structures of a batwing sheltering him from the storm outside.

Like a dog that had been abandoned by its master for too long, the Tardis reacted with hostility to the Master's sudden reappearance. It forced him to use up his last remaining strength to enforce his will onto her. A horrible feeling of déjà vu struck the Master as he recalled how he had equally struggled to gain control over the Tardis when he had first stolen it from lord Oakdown to escape Gallifrey and certain punishment.

He had murdered his own father for it. Perhaps it was only fitting that he would perish here, and repay the debts he owed to his old man for being everything he had never wanted him to become.

_I have failed you again, haven't I? Even when I try to make amends, I am failing you. _

But then he heard the Doctor shout his name, pounding his fists on the doors, and demanding to let him in. _Never._ He thought, stubborn and proud till the very end.

_Never._

He forced his dark thoughts aside, grinding his teeth. A wave of pain washed over him, and he closed his eyes and grimaced. "Listen to me…" He whispered and coughed up blood over the console. "I know I have done you a great wrong…but please, my most faithful companion, my very last who has remained, don't let me die here. Don't let him see me die. Not like this. I beg you...Not like this..."

Weakly, he reached out over the console. His shaking hand smeared blood all over the dials, but his fleeting consciousness could not remember which buttons to push or which lever to lift. A great sense of loss consumed him, and torn by bitterness and regret, he cursed the very day that he was born.

_All I wanted with what was left of my wretched life was to take my revenge on the man who had turned me into a monster. I wanted to right my wrongs, but even that chance was not granted to me. I die as a complete and utter failure, put down by a miserable little Saltman like a bad mongrel dog. _

As he began to lose his feeling in his extremities, and the cold swept over him like a blanket of ice, a tear glided down his cheek. _It can't be. This can't be my fate. It's not fair! I cannot have lived and gone through so much only for it to end like this. _

He heard the Doctor continue to scream his name relentlessly. Come out, Master. Come out! Let me help! He begged. But it was too late. Far too late. Oh he should have listened. He should have accepted the Doctor's help. He should have done a thousand, even a million things differently, but now there was no more time for him to set things right, and only a very few precious little seconds left for nothing more than remorse.

Tired and defeated, he closed his eyes, and waited for the end to come.

The ground began to shake, and for a moment he thought that the earth itself was opening up to swallow him into the depths of hell. He didn't know that it was the Tardis, who was coming to the aid of her master, the ancient bond between Timelord and Tardis still strong enough to urge her to bring her lord to safety. Her beating heart began to pour out swarming rays of energy that transformed the Tardis from the inside out. On the outside, the Doctor stopped shouting and stepped back from the disk, which so far had been the only shape in which the Master's Tardis was disguised. He watched in horror how it grew and transformed itself into a living, breathing beast from hell.

Lord Titanis, who had been taking care of Donna after she had lost consciousness, shot an alarmed look at the Doctor. "What foul sorcery is this?" He yelled.

The dragon stood at least as tall as 10 Saltmen. It swayed its head from one side to the other and gazed down with one gigantic red eye at the Doctor, before it opened its maul and spewed out a crimson fireball into the air.

"Master!" The Doctor shouted. "Stop it! What are you doing?"

The beast unfolded its bat-like wings that had the color of death, black and blood red, and revealed its beating heart that was like a beacon of light that glowed inside its chest, making a shadowy display of its ribcage behind the layers of muscles and leathery skin. It rose on its hind-legs and lashed out its lizard tail around the chamber, knocking down walls and stone statues in one destructive sweep. The structure of the vault weakened, and parts of the ceiling started to come down and threatened to bury everyone inside the tomb underneath tons of earth.

"Doctor!" The Saltlord shouted as he pulled up Donna and carried her over his shoulder. "This beast is going to bury us alive!"

"Master, tell her to stop! Stop this, please!"

Lord Titanis pulled the Timelord away from the raging beast, convinced that he had lost his wits. "He's not listening to you! We have to go. The whole place is coming down!"

"Master!" The Doctor yelled before he was forced to turn around and run when large blocks of the arched bows above came plummeting down in a rain of dirt and rocks. As they fled for safety, he glanced back over his shoulder and saw the creature rearing up and leaping into the air as it spread out its wings, tearing the holes in the wing membranes in the confined space. It then arched back its serpent neck and let out a harsh roar before its breath turned into a blazing inferno and burned a hole in the crumbling ceiling, the flames so hot that it melted the sandstone and let it rain down to the ground in drops of scorching liquid glass. It kept spewing fire, creating a channel large enough for its skull to squeeze through. Then it flapped violently with its wings and forced its massive muscular shoulders through the crack in the ceiling and into the tunnel that led to the world above. The violence of the breakout completely destroyed the chamber, and the Doctor and his remaining companions only just made it out in time to feel the surge of debris pelt down on their backs, followed by an ear-shattering blast as the tomb imploded into itself.

When the dust finally settled, the Doctor came crawling out of a pile of rubble. He searched for the others and found Lord Titanis. Although slightly injured, he was still standing, with Donna leaning heavily on his shoulders. They were surrounded by the deadly forest of Nightshades, but they did no longer need to fear for an attack from these carnivorous plants. The spear-like air roots and the poisonous leaves had all died away in the harsh light of day that now penetrated deep inside their realm. The dragon's ascend had turned Dagonmourn and the Hills of Sorrow into one gigantic crater. The Doctor gazed up at what was now a wide circular hole to the grey open sky beyond and saw the dragon soaring high above the ruined castle. With every beat of the wings it climbed higher and higher, till it soared through the stratosphere of the planet and disappeared into space.

**14.**

The Doctor wanted to shut out everything around him. Every sight, every sound and every smell. If he closed his eyes and concentrated long enough and hard enough on the white point star, he might find him. He might yet be still alive.

Or so he kept telling himself.

The road back to the South was long and depressing. Donna had quickly recovered, but couldn't remember a single thing after the Doctor had forced himself into her mind in his last desperate attempt to intervene with the Master's plans. Although it was a fearful experience, she didn't resent him for what he did.

Something horrible had happened.

She knew by the way the Doctor kept his silence when she asked him about their missing companion, and by the way he averted his eyes when she mentioned his name. He even refused to speak another word to her about the events of Dagonmourn. Eventually it was lord Titanis who told her about the appearance of the dragon and the destruction of the tomb.

She had never seen the Doctor like this before. She was getting really worried about him. He had become barely a shadow of his old self. It was as if the Doctor was in a state deep mourning, as if he had already consolidated with the thought that the Master was gone forever…but then, at the very last leg of their journey to the Midwall, she glimpsed him marching on through the rain and cold in silence, while holding on firmly to the white point star, whispering inaudible words under his breath.

So he was still looking for him.

Perhaps there was still hope.

When they finally reached the Midtower at the fifth day of their jouney back home, it became time to bid farewell to Ser Titanis. The unfortunate events in the north had aged and hardened the old Saltlord, but he was well aware of what Doctor had tried to do for his people, and for that he was truly grateful.

"I bid you a safe journey my good friend." He slapped him on his shoulder and embraced him like a brother. The weather seemed to be reflecting the pessimistic mood of the traveling companions, and the water was coming down in buckets, while the harsh winds swept icy rain drops right into their faces. "May all your wise forefathers be with you. You'll need their protection to fight against our false Gods. Don't mourn for him too long." He whispered in the Doctor's ear, for Ser Titanis was always wearing his heart on his sleeve. "If I had to shed a tear for every good man who has fallen, it would drown the salted earth. That man you've lost was not worth the mud on my boots."

There was a moment of long and heartrending silence as the Doctor gazed over the windswept moor with his hand tucked inside his long coat where he kept and cherished his precious white point star.

"I am not in mourning." He finally replied. His cheeks were wet with a blend of rain and tears, but his eyes burned with renewed determination. "And you are wrong."

**15.**

It was hard at first, but after much trying, he succeeded in wriggling some of his fingers. They felt strange, stiff and long, reminding him of a thin-legged spider scuttling over the floor. Then, miraculously, he managed to lift his hand. It hovered in front of his eyes like a loose trembling organ, an entity on its own. He studied it for a while, before deciding to better put it to use instead of staring at it like a lunatic. When he finally managed to put his left hand firmly on the grid and push himself up, his other hand joined in by reflex as quickly and as easily as if he hadn't been struggling to gain control over his body just a minute ago. It seemed that all you have to do is let them know who was in charge, and the rest will follow automatically. Surely nothing could be more simple. But when he climbed on his feet he immediately fell over, tumbling over his own limbs like a disorientated newborn fawn.

The Tardis wasn't helping either. It was violently rocking up and down and from side to side, as if it was swallowed by a giant and it was now working its way down a massive gullet. _If this goes on for too long I am going to be really sick._ The Master thought. He felt chilled and feverish, and he was irritated as hell. _Where is the bloody Doctor when you need him?_ He wasn't sure that it wasn't his own fault that they have gotten into this mess, for this was obviously a bloody mess indeed, but normally the Doctor would have showed up and picked up the pieces by now. That's how it worked. He could rely on the Doctor and the Doctor was reliable. Someone in his mad and chaotic world had to be. Otherwise, what was the fun in wrecking all this havoc if you had to clean up afterwards?

"Doctor!" He shouted. He wrinkled up his nose for the scent of scorched hair and skin that assaulted his nostrils. "Doctor! Something is burning. Clemencius forbid but you're not trying to cook, are you?"

Something was wrong with his hearing too. His voice sounded completely strange to him. He put a finger in his ear and wriggled it to clear it out.

"Doctor, where the bloody hell are you?"

He tried to stand up again, but this time he wisely held on to the railing. It was only when he finally managed to keep his balance on legs that seemed to be made out of jelly that he finally took a good look around the console room.

"Have you changed the desktop theme again? What is this? Dragonskin?" He though it was absolutely vile, even for someone with such a notoriously bad taste like his Timelord companion. Then he turned his head to the side and noticed that the Tardis core was replaced by an enormous glowing heart that was pumping out a bright green liquid into a disorderly connection of tubes.

"Seriously, I think you've taken that theme decorating obsession a bit too far." The Master sighed, shaking his head in disapproval. Curious though about the new changes that the Doctor had made, he reached over the console to trace the tubing when he felt a sharp pang of pain cut through his spine. He uttered a cry and instinctively reached for the wound. The back of his shirt felt soaking wet with a warm sticky fluid, and when he retracted his hand, his fingers were covered in blood.

He wriggled his blood-drenched fingers in front of his eyes when a part of his missing memory came rushing back to him.

He died.

Or at least, he was dying.

"But I am still here." He muttered, unable to stop his fingers from flapping around nervously like a bird that had forgotten how to fly. "I am bleeding, but I am still here."

He gazed around, and began to scrutinize the interior of the Tardis through new eyes. "This is not the Doctor's Tardis." He concluded out-loud. "This is my father's Tardis…It's mine." He laid down his shaky hand on the giant heart, and felt the cardiac muscles contract rhythmically. The link between Tardis and Timelord immediately opened up and he was flooded with information. He finally knew the reason why the Tardis was so shaking so violently.

"And for some reason, I've apparently turned her into an airborn dragon…" He murmured in surprise as he lifted his hand and absentmindedly rubbed the blood over his sleeve. At least he got away from Dagonmourn alive. The memory of the bloodthirsty avenging demons that had tormented him in his final moments remained even now, absolutely terrifying to him, and he was glad that he had escaped their fury.

But something had changed. He felt different. His legs and arms seemed wrong. Too wiry and too long for their own good, and when he stood straight up he had somehow the notion that he was balancing on stilts. He also realized that there was nothing wrong with his hearing. His voice just sounded strange, and no matter how often he cleared his throat till it was as dry as sandpaper, he could not change it back to how it was.

Then it struck him.

He rushed over to a black computer screen to look at his reflection. No one, not even an immortal Timelord, could have survived what he had been through. To believe that he done so was just foolish. He stared at the mirroring surface. The man who stared back at him from the other side was no longer the same man who Rassilon had once condemned to an eternity in hell. His face was gaunt with sharp cheekbones. His skin was pale, and his eyes were startling blue, the colour of winter frost.

The Master had died after all.

"I have regenerated." He kept staring at himself, cocking his head to one side with his eyes unblinking. A mad giggle tickled the back of throat and he burst out in laughter. His new voice was low, and hummed like a bumblebee. "Finally, I have regenerated! Forever gone is mister prime minister Harold Saxon! For once in my wretched life my wish has come true. Look at me, I am him! I am truly him!" The man in the reflection mimicked his smile. It was a smile that had once driven lord Dagon's brave warriors to utter despair and ruin. "I am myself. I am me…" He whispered, to remind himself who exactly he had become.

He felt the prickling sensation of static energy, beginning at the tips of his fingers, and spreading out slowly over his entire hand like a current of ice and fire. His skin and muscles became translucent and glowing, and when he bald his hand into a fist, violent blue sparks crackled around it like flashes of miniature lightning.

It seemed that not all of Omega's powers had been lost.

"Who would have thought." He murmured. Fascinated by this strange metamorphosis, he couldn't keep his eyes off from the bolts of energy that kept shooting from his skin. Slowly but certainly, he became more and more aware of the prospects of his new self, and he found it absolutely exhilarating.

"It seems that River Song had it right all along...The Nightmare Child has risen from the dead."

_**The end**_

That's it friends. Once again my apologies for taking so long between the posts. I have a bad habit of continiously rewriting everything and I find it hard to keep momentum when I have to add new stuff. Next up is A Map of the Soul. I can't really tell when it will be published, but I am aiming for the end of summer/beginning of autumn for the first chapters. Meanwhile, please leave a review if you enjoy this series. It really helps to motivate me to keep writing this strange and most demanding beast.


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